By KAY S. PEDROTTI
Staff Writer

Peachtree City's Mayor Bob Lenox may have been the author of a "Managed Growth Manifesto," but he told the city council last week that he is as reluctant as anyone else to regard the document as a "solution" to development problems.

"It was meant to be a departure point for discussion," Lenox said, "not the solution." An effort such as that reflected in the manifesto "cannot be done from the top down, but has to come from the people up," Lenox said.

The council's agenda called for consideration of a resolution supporting the manifesto, but no formal action was taken.

Lenox and several council members said they favor formation of a county-wide working committee to study all facts and issues concerning future growth. Lenox said the committee would have to comprise "absolutely everybody, every segment of the community; it cannot work unless everyone concerned becomes involved."

The pressure for rapid growth can only increase, Lenox commented, and the manifesto came out of the FUTURE (Fayette Unified Team to Use Resources Effectively) discussions as a means to begin finding ways "of growing without degrading our quality of life, of protecting us from an explosion so that services can keep up" with the growth rate.

In answer to audience questions, Lenox said that the manifesto calls for promotion of industrial uses "only because of creation of jobs ... I wish everybody who lived here could have a job seven minutes from home, as I do." He said also that the county and Peachtree City land use plans "cannot control the rate of growth," but will be used in connection with other factors to determine what kinds of development may be allowed.

"We are all definitely required to think further ahead than we have ever thought before," Lenox said.