SandySue,
Did you ever attend any city council meetings prior to the election of our current administration? Your accusations of "developer supported" sound kind of familiar. Would you be willing to answer some questions?

Could you tell me (and I mean this with all due respect) your opinion of our former mayor personally negotiating an annexation package with John Weiland with no input from any elected representative or city staff and during an annexation moratorium? Would this not be "developer supporting?" What do you think he stood to gain out of that? Why didn't he push to have annexations put to a vote of the people as his campaign promised? Why did he so vehemently oppose the annexation of that property prior to becoming mayor?

Could you please explain your opinion of our former Mayors support of TDK in Oct. 5, 2005 (see the entire letter in the "letters" section under his letter from last week. The answer is entitled "steve...steve...steve, there you go again" )? Seriously, wouldn't his unqualified support be "developer supporting?"

Can I ask you what our mayor and city council are gaining from their "development supporting?" Are you suggesting they are gaining financially? If so can I expect to see charges filed any time soon? Or will you simply continue to make the allegation?

I have asked similar questions from others in this blog who make unsupported statements as you do. None has answered. I do not know Logsden or any of the counil members. I do not know if they are "developer supported" or not. But like them I have been accused over and over of the same "crime." Since I know I am neither "developer supported," nor "support developers," I naturally question the same unsupported accusations about others.

The only question remains, are you honest and upright enough to answer my questions. or are you simply a "mouthpiece" for others with no spine?
I'm an inquiring mind, and inquiring minds want to know.

Guess who she is? The PAC obsession, obtaining campaign contribution reports, deliberate misspelling of Stuart's name, defensive questions designed to minimize the previous administration's mistakes.

Go ahead take a wild guess.
meow

Talk about "mouthpiece" I sat at the light at Georgian Parkway and 74 the other day and waited for all 2 cars to pass through the intersection. What was the big outcry about the traffic on Georgian Parkway Mr. Stinson?
Think what you want, but when council opens up the meeting to conference in I will attend as I am out of town most weeks. I have asked for this but the only one they have let attend via conf call is Stewart.
You and your other Direct Pac cronies (aka Secret Pac) had one mission in life and that was to bring back developer support.
Also, why did you not report your web development as in kind contribution for your Pac filing? I have a notion to report it.

What are your talking about? "SecretPac?" Uhh? Can't attend Council Meetings because you are out of town? Uhh? So what, they are supposed to change meeting nights to accomodate you? Bring back "developer support"? Uhhh? You spout off a lot, but how about you simply answer the questions I asked you. You know, you guys are like a bunch of broken records. Developers, developers, developers. You must count developers in your sleep. Ya'll need to seek some professional help and see if you can get away from your obsessive notion that if I don't agree, I must be a "developer." It's old, it's tired, and it is blatantly false. That's why there is never...EVER...any substance to your absurd rhetoric.

Come on SandySue, you seem to know it all. Answer my questions. Or are you chicken?

You'll have to excuse Valleygirl. She just got a job with the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce. They have brainwashed her into thinking that overdevelopment is what Peachtree City is all about.

Their new mantra is "We can be like Clayton County."

Jones, I shouldn’t even dignify this with a response but what the hey. I am not actually a member of or an employee of the Fayette Chamber of Commerce, or the Fayette Development Authority for that matter. I own a business here and if I had the time I would join the chamber. With people like you (who obviously slept through your civics and econ classes) living here they need all the help they can get! I said it before and I’ll keep saying it until the fat lady sings….You can’t stop the growth in Coweta from occurring and if you ignore it and don’t prepare for it in advance, you will suffer the consequences. So those of you who really believe that TDK is a bad idea, I hope you are prepared to sit in the traffic jams that will occur if we don’t provide alternate routes through to our industrial areas in our community.

This isn’t just about the retail development wars; it’s about the economic growth in our city. In order for companies to consider our community as a viable option for location or relocation, our industrial and light industrial areas have to be accessible to not only our community, but also the surrounding communities in an efficient and well planned way. If we bottle neck all of the traffic patterns in and out of that area, it will be an economic disaster. The competition to attract new business growth to our area is very stiff. Major corporations looking to relocate their businesses work with economic development organizations like the Fayette County Development Authority, Peachtree City Development Authority, & yes the Fayette Chamber work on a voluntary basis going above and beyond for our community to strive to bring more solid business to our area to increase our job market and increase our tax base. People like you are so quick to vilify these organizations and thumb your nose up at them, but the truth is our community would not be what it is today with out these organizations and their contributions.

Our city needs to put its best foot forward to continue to provide a solid platform for economic growth in our community. That won’t be accomplished with more subdivisions; it will be accomplished by making our commercial areas that are zoned for manufacturing and light industry more accessible and our amenities within our community better than the ones found in competing communities. You want lower taxes? Promote smart business growth decisions that will attract more business tax revenue to our area and it will decrease the burden of the tax rate on the individual home owners. That folks, is how it works!

You state, "our industrial and light industrial areas have to be accessible". My question is to whom does it need to be accessible?

The people working in those places don't live here, they don't pay taxes here. As far as shopping here, they eat lunch here and go home taking there paychecks with them.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing but respect for working people that endure long hours in industrial jobs. I worked in a production industry for several years in a management position. The people I worked with were dedicated to doing a good job for a good wage. It closed. Cheaper labor could be found elsewhere. Just how much do you think a forklift operator or an order selector makes?

Most people shop when and where it’s convenient for them to shop. Do you honestly think Coweta isn’t going to build shops on their side of the county line so that they can keep the tax in their county?

There are very few employees that work in the industrial areas that live in PTC. Most live in Coweta or Meriwether Counties.

I'm not disagreeing with you that we need to accept that Coweta County is going to grow, but your idea that those industrial jobs are going to help PTC financially are, I think, overly optimistic.

The main problem with your math is this. The houses that are going to be built on the Coweta side of TDK are slated to be in the 300,000 to 500,000 dollar range. That's not exactly the kind of housing that employees working at industrial jobs can afford.

What the TDK and Senoia developments are going to draw are "commuters" through PTC on their way to work in Atlanta or Hartsfield. The PTC city planner has already told us that the TDK development alone will double the current traffic on Hwy. 74 north. That’s an increase of 24,000 vehicle trips/day.

What Fayette County, PTC especially, needs is alternatives to driving. The problem is there are currently no plans for any alternatives.

By far the vast majority of the tax base in PTC comes from people that don’t work here. Heck, most of the cities police and fireman live in other parts of Fayette or other Counties. They don’t live in PTC. They can’t afford to.

Additionally, there is already talk about widening Crosstown Drive. The problem with that is the traffic has nowhere to go once it hits Robinson Road. Who do you think is going to have to pay for the road improvements for our local roads? I can tell you it won’t be the commuters passing through PTC. GRTA has already told Fayette County what road improvements we’ll have to pay for because of the TDK extension. We’re already looking at several million dollars of road improvements that we'll never recoup from additional sales taxes.

I don’t think we, the residents of PTC, are against growth. I think we’re against growth that is forced upon us that we don’t have any say in nor will we receive any benefit from.

There are a “few” local businesses that “may” benefit from these roads, but overall, the city/county won’t see a preoperational increase in tax revenue as compared to what it will have to invest. That’s bad economics, I don’t care where you studied it.

As an example of how these road improvements are having a negative impact on our community I would invite you to look at the houses along Hwy. 74 that will have a six land highway running literally through their back yards. I saw a house today where the bulldozer came within a ‘foot’ of someone’s back door. I’m not kidding. How is that a benefit to the home owners? Please don’t tell me, “well that just progress”. That kind of progress is not wanted by tax paying residents.

Small business owners in PTC may see some increase in sales due to the increase of traffic and that’s great. But the majority of those adversely affected by this type of growth will not receive anything but grief.

Just curious, is there actual statisical data to support your claim that the people working in these areas don't live in PTC or is this your impression? Also, don't those businesses pay taxes?

If your referring to the paragraph that said, "The people working in those places don't live here, they don't pay taxes here. As far as shopping here, they eat lunch here and go home taking there paychecks with them."

There is empirical evidence you yourself may observe every day between 3:00 - 4:00 PM Monday thru Friday. We call it rush hour and you can see that the vast majority of workers either go down 74 south and turn onto GA 85 or Rockaway road. You will also notice that the traffic on northbound 74 is backed up to the FAA building. All of those folks are going up to 54 to turn left heading into Coweta County.

If you have the time and drive through the parking lots and you will see that the vast majority of vehicles have tags from other counties. I did when the TDK started being talked about a few months ago. I too was curious about just what kind of traffic we were looking at. I was actually surprised by the number of out of county tags I saw.

I do know people that work at Cooper Lighting, Panasonic and Hoshizaki and they have also told me that the bulk of workers come from other areas of Fayette and other county's because PTC is to expensive for them.

I would generally take one friends word for it as they are the head of the HR department at one of the above named companies. They do live in PTC. Additionally, my neighbor works at another of those companies in the Accounting dept./payroll office and he sees the employee taxes as thats his job.

As per the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, "Currently, over a third of our industrial park and other area employees come from Coweta, Meriwether and other counties in that direction. Estimates indicate that this translates to 1500 to 2000 cars per day which currently use either Highway 54 or Rockaway Road to travel to and from work."

Please remember I never said that there weren't folks working in the Industrial area that lived in Fayette County. There are a number that do.

Why would the people that live in PTC/Fayette County need TDK to get to work? If they live east of 74, they wouldn't be using it.

If you are implying that folks in Fayette County would use/benefit from TDK I ask you to read the meeting minuets from the Sept. 12 Special meeting. The part where City Planner David Rast quoted the traffic pattern numbers and the direction of traffic flow patterns. It clearly indicates that 24,000+ vehicle trips/day were anticipated for 74 north just for the McIntosh Trail Village development alone.

So to answer your question, yes, I comfortable that I have sufficient evidence to believe that the bulk of the taxes paid don't come back to Fayette County.

I think you read more into what I asked than I meant.

"Just curious, is there actual statisical data to support your claim that the people working in these areas don't live in PTC or is this your impression?"

I knew the answer as it relates to the PTC company I work for since I too am the head of HR. 18% of our employees live in PTC; 27% in Fayette County. Another 27% are from Coweta and Meriwether. I really wanted the actual statisical data and not just in terms of how it relates to TDK which, by the way, I actually do not support.

I do "not" have any actual statistical data.

To be honest, I've never asked anyone for it as I'm not sure that the information is freely given to just anyone asking.

I know that my company will not give out that type of information without some sort of "official" request.(we're paranoid)

I only have what I'm told.

Thanks for sharing what you have.

Growth is good as long as it is managed and adds revenue to the city and county. TDK extension does neither. So, who is our Mayor supporting? Not the residents of Peachtree City!

The mayor and the council are supporting the citizens of this community; they are supporting economic growth and development. That is their job. TDK is a good business move for the city. It will help to increase the efficiency of traffic flow through the industrial /commercial area of our community from the surrounding community that is being built. That community will be built whether we build the road extension or not and if we don’t we will suffer high traffic counts coming in from Coweta right up 34/54 trying to get to TDK, & Dividend. To wait to take care of this until after the problem has arrived would be stupid and irresponsible.

I still don’t understand how Peachtree City residents profit from funneling 100,000 additional cars onto our roads and neighborhoods. The property taxes paid by the thousands of houses and automobiles will be a wind fall for Coweta County residents and zip for us. Coweta gets the dollars and we get the fumes.

I believe you’re suggesting that by adding more cars to our roads Peachtree City businesses will profit and I don’t doubt that. But where does that leave the Peachtree City residents? What I am saying is that with properly managed growth there should be a direct return for the residents and not some trickle down effect from increased business profits padding someone’s pocket. Peachtree City was designed and built for the benefit of the residents and now all that is going to change.

By allowing TDK extension to happen the City Council is supporting developers and business with the cost paid by the residents of Peachtree City. That is not Managed Growth!

Who are these developers? Do they live in PTC? Is their way of life about to be dramatically changed? My guess is they live in a palace far, far way . . .

The only way citizens will profit, will be if the police set up speed traps all over TDK. Other than that, we won't profit. The average citizen wasn't supposed to profit from this....the developers were. Ssshheeeesh you really are new here aren't you?

Hey, it’s not me that is making the claim PTC residents will profit from TDK extension. It’s vallygirl who is making that claim. I maybe new but I wasn’t born yesterday. My position is that TDK extension profits everyone but the residents of PTC.

Nobody gives a hoot about Coweta County getting developed, just run your road through your county to the interstate, not through us in PTC. Why would people drive through a shopping center there to shop here? It is about developers, oil, and republicans.

That’s very short sighted of you dollar. But not surprising considering your politics. It’s not about retail wars; it’s about local economy and business growth reducing the tax burden on the individual tax payer. It’s about increasing supply and demand in a job market and strengthening our economic base. If you think of it like a business, you want to increase revenues in certain departments and decrease work loads in others, then you need to increase accessibility to the revenue making departments to all the markets they may serve. No this isn’t about retail, we have a lot of non retail oriented businesses in this community that would benefit from a larger customer base. If the businesses in Fayette County benefit so do the tax payers. You want lower taxes or higher taxes? I would guess from the republican comment, you might be happier in a socialist country or county for that matter!

Valleygirl, it is in your exuberance for business that is blinding you to see the cost that will be paid by the people you need for your business. As I mentioned earlier growth is good as long as it is managed properly but in your business plan for PTC it appears you don’t give a hoot about the quality of life for the residents.

Next time you drive up Hwy 74 going north of Crosstown Dr. look to your right. You will see homes of people who are impacted by unmanaged growth. Is that your idea of progress and the benefit of relieving tax payers of their burdens?

With every action there is a reaction and what your suggesting is to plow full steam ahead without concern to those who live here as long as you make more money. Unfortunately, the reaction will take some time to build and then it will be too late. PTC will become another victim of growth gone wild.

TDK does not benefit Fayette County or PTC. There will be no reduction in taxes with the added traffic or surge in retail business. Look ahead to what you are asking for and think to yourself, “is this a town in which I want to live and raise my children?”

I submit to you New2Ptc, with your lack of action, PTC will become another victim of growth gone wild.

New2ptc said Next time you drive up Hwy 74 going north of Crosstown Dr. look to your right. You will see homes of people who are impacted by unmanaged growth. Is that your idea of progress and the benefit of relieving tax payers of their burdens?

The whole economic development argument aside, let’s try to approach this from another angle logically. The widening of Hwy 74 is a GaDOT project not a Peachtree city project. The original plan I was told, was to be 4 lanes not six. That was because TDK was supposed to be extended to funnel the traffic from Meriwether and Coweta Counties directly into the industrial areas in our community and keep those commuters heading into work there, off of Hwy 74. That was supposed to help alleviate traffic congestion going north on Hwy 74. TDK was delayed. The development in Coweta was approved at the state level, and we ended up with a six lane highway in our back yard. You have the people who delayed TDK to thank for that.

Bad_ Ptc Said: There is empirical evidence you yourself may observe every day between 3:00 - 4:00 PM As per the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, "Currently, over a third of our industrial park and other area employees come from Coweta, Meriwether and other counties in that direction. Estimates indicate that this translates to 1500 to 2000 cars per day which currently use either Highway 54 or Rockaway Road to travel to and from work."

Bad_Ptc Said: Monday thru Friday. We call it rush hour and you can see that the vast majority of workers either go down 74 south and turn onto GA 85 or Rockaway road. You will also notice that the traffic on northbound 74 is backed up to the FAA building. All of those folks are going up to 54 to turn left heading into Coweta County.

Bad_Ptc also said ” to consider the meeting minutes on September 12, special meeting the part where City Planner David Rast quoted, “the traffic pattern numbers and the direction of traffic flow patterns. It clearly indicates that 24,000+ vehicle trips/day were anticipated for 74 north just for the McIntosh Trail Village development alone.””

Do you think that this traffic pattern will be any better if we don’t put in the extension? No it will not. It’s going to be a whole lot worse. With the traffic counts projected, we will be dealing with a lot more congestion coming up from the 85 connector, Rockaway Rd, and coming over from 34/54. I don’t understand why you all insist that putting in a road that will funnel the traffic that is heading directly into our commercial industrial area to work without bringing them up 74 or down 74 is of no benefit for the people who live here. Those that live here and have to travel hwy 74 to Atlanta and beyond every day will clearly benefit! Anything that reduces the traffic that is loading that road is going to be a benefit to us in the long run. Our commutes will be shorter and the pollution levels will be lower if the traffic is moved through our area quickly instead of allowing it to sit and build toxins. Those cars that are projected are still going to come thru PTC if TDK isn’t built, they are just going to do it coming thru Rockaway Rd. and Hwy34/54 and they are going to add to the already stated 1500 to 2000 cars that Bad_ptc was first referring to. If you think that if we don’t put in the road extension they won’t build, think again.

I do feel sorry for the people along Hwy 74. They used to have a nice green belt to look at and now they are going to have a solid wall to landscape in front of and try and soften. But when life hands you lemons, I say make lemonade. They can make some really beautiful patio gardens when the construction is finished and they won’t hear the train as much any more. If we hadn’t delayed the plan to extend TDK, they would have more of a back yard than they have now, and we would still have some trees there, but I guess the people who didn’t want the extension built didn’t grasp just how necessary the projected growth in our neighboring counties made this situation. It wasn’t a lack of planning or growth gone wild as some of you have insisted, it was a lack of understanding in this community of the big picture on a regional level not just a city or county level.

Some of us in PTC seem to think that we are the center of our world and no one else around us has the right to change and grow. New2ptc, I have watched this community and the surrounding area grow tremendously over the last 20 years; I applaud our leaders for creating a wonderful community that doesn’t even remotely resemble the one I moved to. Most of us seem to have difficultly with change, but I don’t. Our population is growing and I can tell you, the people like you, that didn’t want our community to change 20 years ago, have had to deal with it and so will you. It will be handled in true PTC style with landscape buffers and esthetic beauty just like every other widening project we have been through, but the growth will occur whether we chose to embrace it and deal with efficiency or not.

I do think that anything that helps to move traffic efficiently thru a community is helpful to both it's economy and the people who live in it. I don't know anyone who likes to sit in traffic and doesn't have better things to do with their time. As for whether or not this community will be the one I want to raise my kids in? I have watched it grow over 20 years, and I realize that it will continue to change just like the rest of our world. That doesn’t scare me at all. We have built our lives here, we work here, we live here; we will stay, raise our kids & grandkids here and it will be just fine how ever it changes.

I'll never trust any politician.

You can't have a thin skin and be a politician. You literally have to "not give a crap" about what anyone thinks, and that about sums it up.