Riverdale wasn’t a planned community and neither was Fayetteville.

Peachtree City has controls in the master plan that will keep this town from every remotely resembling Riverdale. Despite everyone’s complaints about the progress here, I can tell you from experience that the growth here won’t harm property values or our way of life here. I came from a planned community in California and it went through all of this stuff years ago and still is a beautiful place to live. My sister is still there and she loves it. I don’t remember where the info a week or so ago came from, but someone was complaining that Ptc wasn’t in the top rankings of the country’s safest city anymore. That might have more to do with the shooting at a party and the one at NCR years ago as well as the one that happened recently. We also have been at the forefront in the news for catching internet predators (not criticizing that, keep it up!) And I don’t know how all that effects our standing. What I found interesting was that my old town was at the top of the list! Mission Viejo California was #1 as the safest city in America. They went though all of this growth too. They have a mall, Home Depot, Walmart, Lowes, and lots of fun restaurants and shops. There are places to play and work just like here. They even have a community College. They have areas around them like Riverdale, but their town didn’t change because of the master plan concept and the landscaping & sign ordinances.

People, Growth is inevitable and we have handled it just fine. The Avenue is wonderful, the Home Depot/ Walmart development is turning out nice and so has the Target Center. We need a new anchor at the Braelinn Shopping Center (we have all agreed on that) but overall the growth has been good for our community. I ‘m glad I don’t have to go up to Atlanta for things anymore and I’m glad the tax revenue for the things I buy is staying right here in our community now. The businesses looking to locate in our area look at the convenience of having all of these perks available. We want the businesses to locate here because that increases our tax base and our property values (supply & demand folks).

I’m not upset about all of the plans for growth because it isn’t an unknown factor to me.
If you look at the benefits it brings and you plan ahead it all works out fine.

Valleygirl,

With all due respect, your logic seems to be it didn’t happen there so it won’t happen here. I think it will and here’s why. Look at the counties that surround Fayette. Clayton, Coweta, Spalding, and Fulton. They all have higher crime than Fayette. So how did Fayette manage to be an island in this sea of crime so to speak? There was no reason for the criminals to come here. They want places that have a high density of retail stores. That is what attracts shoppers with valuables. People with valuables are what attracts the criminal. A Fayette County deputy himself told me that the Pavilion was the worst thing to ever happen to Fayetteville for this very reason.

I don't think it's reasonable to keep out all commercial/retail. Fayette used to not have any commercial demand because the population did not justify it.

A Community based solely on residential isn't realistic, to me anyways.

I'm still not positive this is the best use of this property. Kohl's and Sams do not excite me at all.

I never said keep out all comerical/retail, I refered to high density retail. The orginal plan for PTC was to be 5 "villiages" and a clean industrial park. Each villiage was to have a villiage center that would include a small shopping area. Thats not even close to what we're getting. And this wasn't my proposal. It was what PTC was "planned" to be.

I agree, the West Village is "morphing" before our eyes. I've said elsewhere, whoever approved the Walmart/HomeDepot etc before the roads were improved should be run out of town. I really have no use for a Walmart myself, but obviously folks love the place.

40 years ago, retail was MUCH different than now. Malls were all the rage, and that's gone out of style for sure. I don't think people ever envisioned as many different fairly large stores as we have now. I still think we should be able to do much better than Kohls and Sams (if that's what it is).

Also, it is hard to pick and choose what part of the old plan we want to keep. The old plan called for twice the population we have now. I'm certainly glad that part is out of the picture.

Nice post.

Well Put ValleyGirl.

Just look at Fayetteville for proof.

That's laughable...BUT, if you want to put $$$ where mouth is, let's look at the property you own in PTC, and what it would be worth in Riverdale, and I'll more than likely buy it. When can we get started?

We can be worse than crimedale oooppps I mean riverdale. I was hoping the value of our homes would hang in there for another 8yrs. Thats when I'm eligible to retire. I hate to have to move now before the value of homes tank in this city.

I see nothing that is taking us in that direction. A few well managed shopping centers/roads certainly isn't going to cause a problem.

It's not the shopping centers that are causing the problems, it's the people they attract from outside Fayette that come in to shop. Like Dude and Git Real said, we built the Pavillion in Fayettville and welcomed Claytonians and thier money with opened arms. Next thing we know, five managers are tied up and robbed at gunpoint at Tinseltown, there are 1-2 cars broken into a day, people are getting beaten and shot, rats are pooping in the popcorn; and our officials are suprised by this? Granted, Coweta isn't Clayton; but it isn't Fayette either and we used to protect that. Every day, that line gets blurred and it's a shame.

to shop at a Kohls. Or a Wholesale Club, if they even approve it. Having been to BJ's in Newnan yesterday, we probably missed the boat on a NICE department store, Dillards has a great looking building right across the street. That would have been a MUCH better alternative than Kohls.

So what exactly do you propose we do about "these people"?
How about a wall in the Fayette/Clayton county line and a sort of "border patrol"?

Man, some of these blogs are just dumb.

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Making you think twice......

We'll just put a noose around your neck and hang you on the "Welcome To Fayette County" sign. That oughta do it wouldn't you say?

See...not all blogs are dumb.

...we could threat to shave all Claytonians to make them look like you!!

I'm beginning to see your point...

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Making you think twice......

IF you can show me, then I'll talk, otherwise, you are just another mud slinger.

Isn't the property in question currently zoned commercial? I would have been in favor of waiting on the Walmart-Homedepot until the road was finished myself. I didn't live here then, who was in charge then?

I'm on record against every zoning change there has been, I think the West Village is too dense and I was against the changing of the Church at Peachtree Parkway to a 24 hour drug store. Your facts don't match up with your claims.

McDawg:

Every square inch of the property in East Coweta needs to be rezoned - that's been in the newspapers. Even the PTC proposed big boxes require exception approval according to the article above. Are you in favor of those changes? I'm not.

As for no one driving a distance to go to Kohls, you've got to be kidding. People drive from Clayton to the Avenues to shop.

Go drive up GA-85 and keep saying to yourself that just adding a couple more well managed shopping centers won't matter. That's what they used to say. That's what they have been saying on Bullsboro Road in Coweta for over a decade - now they are all complaining and raising their taxes to build bigger roads.

Vote Republican (except Westmoreland)

But I hear you about the big boxes, I'm not sure we need them either, Especially Kohls. Re the Avenue, there are shops at the Avenue, that are present no where else on the Southside of town. And the stuff they sell isn't cheap. I'm over there a good bit on my golf cart, and I don't see a tremendous amout of Clayton Tags myself.

As far as adding centers in PTC, we don't have hardly any more room. I think we agree on much more than we disagree. We both realize the land won't sit vacant, it's too valuable for that. We don't have many more chances to make decisions. We either try to control what is built and work with them to make it as nice as possible, or get something crammed down our throat by a Judge.

Whoever was in office when the present West Village was approved should be run out of town on a rail.

and commercial. What would make them think this property wouldn't go that way?

I seriously doubt it will impact them much at all. In fact, many, many of their residents will shop there.

...and I've never been able to figure out why people want to live there. I've warned out-of-towners away from there, when they're looking to move to PTC.

What happens to the Line Creek Nature Preserve? Will it be sitting in the middle of a parking lot now?

This wasn't in the works under Brown. He wouldn't allow such a thing as protecting the city from legal challenge to come up - things like that aren't important to him. Logsdon dreamed this whole thing up and got it passed in his first 2 months in office and got it planned next to Planterra Ridge just to spite those people - Brown's neighborhood, you know.

Sam's Club! How great would that be!
meow

That area has been zoned light industrial/commercial since the 1980s. Planterra Subdivision wasn't even there then. Residents should have known what would happen. Once Walmart goes into an area it's going commercial-just a matter of time. Have you ever seen a Walmart sitting out all be itself somewhere?