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Citizens group preparing long-term plan for PTC future

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

What will Peachtree City be like 20 years from now?

A volunteer group of citizens and former city officials is helping city staff peer into that future as they develop the city’s new comprehensive plan.

At the committee’s first meeting Monday, City Planner David Rast noted that some plans for Peachtree City dating back 20 years ago projected a population of 85,000, more than double the current population.

In other words, planning so far ahead isn’t an exact science. But the committee will be giving it a solid shot, with many topics to cover in the next year or so. Included on that list are transportation, land use, community facilities, economic development and housing.

The committee will seek public participation in the formulation of the comprehensive plan, which must be submitted to the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for approval, Rast said. That deadline is October 2006, but there’s plenty of work to go around for monthly meetings and likely smaller group meetings focusing on particular issues, Rast noted.

While the city doesn’t control the state highways, the committee definitely needs to take a look at traffic, Rast said. Commute times are increasing for city residents who drive into Atlanta on Ga. Highway 74, and new development in unincorporated south Fulton County will likely increase travel times.

Redevelopment of properties within the city limits will also continue to be an issue in the future, Rast noted. Some relatively new commercial properties have been redeveloped in recent years, including the former Donato’s Pizza location that is now another slate of retail shops at The Avenue, and the former Westpark movie theater that now is home to Carrabba’s Italian Grill.

Residential redevelopment may become an issue in older areas of the city, perhaps with some homes being bought, torn down and rebuilt, Rast said. Currently, the city has no regulations on the books for architecture of redeveloped sites.

Although the committee, chosen by City Council and staff, has quite a few residents who have been here 10 years or more, a few newcomers are on board: two of whom have lived in the city for less than a year.

The committee also includes several former planning commissioners and two former mayors: Fred Brown and Bob Lenox.

Rast said he didn’t anticipate the committee agreeing on everything.

“I hope we won’t, because that will serve to open up some dialog,” Rast said.

The committee will be armed with a host of information in each category that is being compiled by city staff and a consultant, Rast said. Among that information will be a compilation of how each individual parcel of land in the city is zoned, the size of the lot, the size of the building and the type of business if applicable.

The committee will also learn how much of the city’s 15,000-plus acres have been developed and how much remains for residential, commercial and industrial development.

In the housing sector, the committee will receive information on the mix of houses in the city, their condition and occupancy and even the cost of various housing, said Clyde Stricklin, the city’s director of developmental services.