By CAL BEVERLY
Publisher

The Peachtree City Council recently renewed a moratorium on all annexations. But the council members left the door open to consider annexing nearly 1,000 acres north of Ga. Highway 54 and west of Ga. Highway 74.

Let's talk in Part I about the West Village, that lingering figment of planners' and developers' imaginations.

The concept is a fairly recent one, despite what you may hear from those same planners and developers.

Way back in the 1970s, there were some ambitious drawings that showed a Lake McIntosh on the Fayette-Coweta border, formed by damming Line Creek in the vicinity of the uninhabited area west of Falcon Field. It was south of Ga. Highway 54, and would have included some fancy subdivisions, courtesy of then-Peachtree City Development Corp. and its patron, landowner Bessemer Securities (and later, The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S.).

Those drawings I have seen with my own two peepers, having dwelled nearby since early 1977. Lake Mac disappeared under intercounty squabbling and Lake Kedron on Flat Creek was its eventual replacement.

The point is — the “Village” was well south of what is now being discussed as the newest and last of Peachtree City's village developments. Now there's squabbling over what is to be built on land bordering Hwy. 54, long zoned commercial, long before there was ever a Planterra Ridge.

I myself bought a home in a quiet neighborhood, filled with trees, next to forests and cow pastures. That vista has changed — now I awake to the rumbling of earth-moving equipment and road-building machines, converting what was once a forest to 399 apartments and 160 or so small homes.

Needless to say, I am less than thrilled by the forest being replaced with apartment parking lots. But, it's not my land, and it was zoned for that before I ever moved in, 22 years ago.

Can't stop that development of land zoned commercial for a quarter century. It's what's being talked about just north of that area that I'm most concerned about — the new West Village.

First, a few definitions.

Annexing: that's when a city takes into its incorporated boundaries land that was in the unincorporated county. Annexing, by the way, is completely optional. No city ever is legally bound to approve annexation requests, unlike rezoning.

Density: what you get when people occupy an area. Some folks like high density, others prefer low density. Peachtree City, for the most part, is — in my judgment — medium to high density: about two to four dwelling units per acre on average

(divide the city's area of 15,000 acres by its population of about 33,000, and leave out green belts, commercial and industrial areas).

I would consider low density as what mostly prevails in the unincorporated county — usually less than one house per acre, and often one house per two acres or more.

What developers want: high density and sewer connections.

What annexing offers: high density and sewer connections.

Why sewer? Because in the unincorporated county, residents must pay for and maintain viable septic tank drainage fields, usually requiring more than a half-acre of land per house. That limits the number of homes that can be built on a given plot of land. That decreases return on the developers' investment.

City sewer service opens up vastly greater numbers of units per acre. That means more money. That's why developers want to be annexed into cities.

If you prefer greater numbers of people on the city's west side — by a factor of three- to fivefold — you should support Peachtree City's annexing the nearly 1,000 acres now in the unincorporated county. Even at the extremely unlikely lowest city density, that would add from 2,000 to 3,000 more folks to our population. Add a few apartments, or townhouses, and the numbers could swell above 5,000 — and nearly that many more automobiles. And that's before any commercial development.

The new apartments and small homes under construction adjacent to Wynnmeade will add about 1,200 people and nearly that many cars to the west side's already bulging traffic count.

How many would likely be built under its current county zoning? Look at what's there now. The Line Creek wetlands drastically limit septic tank developments. Probably the maximum number of homes that would be allowed under the most dense county zoning would be under 400 homes — maybe not even half that many.

Which would you rather have — under 400 homes in the county or 1,500 to 3,000 dwelling units or more inside Peachtree City?

But, some ask, what about Tyrone? What if Tyrone annexes that area?

In Part II, I'll talk about the concept of “protection by annexation.”

[Cal Beverly is editor and publisher of The Citizen and a 22-year resident of Wynnmeade, one of the city's oldest subdivisions.

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