If the recent revelations about TDK [Boulevard Extension] have you concerned, you are reacting as a normal human being. After all, it is not every day that you learn of an additional 35,000 cars being channeled into your town from a brand new mega development going in next door.

Add to that the knowledge that this new town’s very existence is due in large part to your tax dollars paying for the road that connects it to Peachtree City, and your concern may grow into genuine anxiety.

But when you look into the prospect of your property values tumbling due to the building of this road at your expense, you are quite justified in growing from anxiety to pure hysteria.

But how can a new development actually lower the property values of a stable, respectable region like Peachtree City? How can TDK actually TKO our property values in Peachtree City? An explanation is in order.

The Coweta property in question is currently a vast area of forested land that has remained undeveloped due to its lack of infrastructure. Since it was just about impossible to get to the property, the poor landowners were reduced to using it primarily for deer hunting.

Enter some of our local millionaire real estate types who saw here the possibility to get even richer. So these developers purchased the acreage at a good price relative to its location to Peachtree City.

In order to increase the land’s value, there then began a long and successful campaign to elect officials in both Peachtree City and Coweta County who would make the land more valuable by making it more accessible to Peachtree City.

Hence, the recent campaign to have the government pay for both the road and bridge project which we refer to as TDK.

After TDK was a done deal, the developer could no longer contain his zeal and displayed a plan to build over 3,500 homes, a very large, some may say, regional shopping center and office space. Again, it has been estimated that all this will bring an additional 35,000 cars per day through Peachtree City.

So how can something as grand as this negatively affect the property values in Peachtree City? To begin with one has to look at the math involved with developing.

Two factors are fixed in any development, the land cost and the development cost. The owners paid a certain price for the land. If they paid $10,000 per acre for 850 acres they have about $8.5 million in land.

Development costs are about the same no matter what the density. When you add to their land cost an estimated development cost of $10 million, you have a total estimated cost for New Community of $18.5 million dollars.

Under current zoning, they may get, with sewer, about 850 lots. This would give them about $21,800 per lot in total costs. At this cost basis, Peachtree City can be assured of homes in the mid $200s at least going in across the creek.

However, assume you get, as the developers want, 3,500 lots and all the commercial and office added into the mix. You now get not 850 lots but 3,500 lots plus all the other commercial thrown in.

It is easy to figure that this added density brings the cost per lot down to a fraction of the original cost. Instead of having a $21,800 lot cost, you have about $5,300 per lot, not including all the commercial land.

Again, these are only estimates, but they do illustrate the problem. With this low cost basis due to increased zoning density, it is quite possible that if a slowdown comes, one might see homes in the low $120s going in just across the border.

And this is where the true hysteria comes into play for Peachtree City homeowners. Imagine that for whatever reason our new developer friends need to sell quickly. Recessions have a way of making developers go from being active land buyers to aggressive land sellers.

Given the low cost per lot due to the extreme density allowed, the developer is now able to unload his land to a builder who would then be in a position to build a much more inexpensive home next to our beloved city.

Stated bluntly, homes being built in the low to mid 100s just across the county line will not help values in Planterra Ridge, Kedron or any of the other upscale neighborhoods here. And given the density demanded in New Community, such might be our situation in the not too distant future if all goes as planned. All this in the name of progress.

If you doubt this is possible, just look east of Fayette County to a mega development called River’s Edge. It started out a high-end, upscale golf course development complete with all the bells and whistles.

Then things began to slow just a bit. The developer decided to sell quickly and things started going down even quicker. By the time it was bought out of bankruptcy, it was a mega development of homes starting in the $120s. And, yes, much of the traffic going into and out of River’s Edge passes right through Fayette County.

The fact is we are now entering a slow period in the real estate cycle. Housing inventories in the Southern Crescent are growing daily. What does the future hold? Honestly, nobody really knows.

But the fact is an additional 3,500-plus homes going in across Line Creek at this time may not be good news for our property values.

Hopefully, we will not in the near future be like our neighbors in the eastern part of Fayette County. They saw directional signs advertising homes just across the county line in the $120s. Will that be our fate as well?

It is now up to our elected leaders to protect us. Unfortunately, the track record here is not very encouraging.

Thank you, Mayor Logsdon and Sen. Seabaugh. Without your help, none of this would have been possible.

Name withheld by request