A 13-acre parcel that will feature medical and other office uses on the south side of Peachtree City has been annexed by the Peachtree City Council.

The 4-1 vote Thursday night means that the site, along Ga. Highway 74 between the city limits and Redwine Road, will receive city services such as police, EMS and fire response. Also, the city will have to maintain the cart path that will be built by the developer, Group VI, and the city must also maintain the right-of-way on the additional stretch of Hwy. 74, officials said.

Councilwoman Judi-ann Rutherford was the only vote against annexing the Starr’s Mill Professional Center.

“I think it might cost us more than it gains us,” Rutherford said.

The project will generate approximately $40,000 in taxes per year but since at least some of the offices will house medical businesses, the development will also generate some calls for medical transport, officials noted.

Councilman Stuart Kourajian said the project will be beneficial because the city needs more medical offices, and they will be available via the city’s cart path system. But Rutherford said the offices would be developed as medical in the county regardless of whether the annexation occurred.

Kourajian also said the annexation creates a natural boundary for the city limits with Redwine Road.

One of the buildings is already under construction, but Group VI representatives said it is being built to Peachtree City standards, and the landscape plan will also meet the city ordinance.

Rutherford said she didn’t want to set a precedent by allowing a developer to start work on a project to avoid the scope of city ordinances only later to turn around and consider such projects for inclusion in Peachtree City. Kourajian said he didn’t think the trees that were on the site before construction began were clear-cut “as I was first led to believe.”

Mike Amos of Group VI said some of the trees along the highway had to be removed to make room for a turn lane required by the Georgia Department of Transportation. He also noted that a berm would be built to separate the golf cart path from vehicles on Ga. Highway 74, which Rutherford said was important to keep at bay the distracting appearance that golf cart headlights can have on highway traffic.

Kourajian said the annexation also makes a city-owned tract nearby more valuable.

Council also voted to limit the operating hours of the buildings to the same time limits imposed for the Delta Credit Union office complex on Ga. Highway 74 North.