After reading your articles in the March 7, 2007, edition of The Citizen of “Proactive annexation ahead for PTC?” and previous articles written by Mayor Harold Logsdon and former Mayor Steve Brown concerning Peachtree City growth, I am curious as to what the long-term vision is for PTC’s growth?

What PTC will look like in five, 10 or 20 years from now will be determined by actions taken both within PTC and outside of PTC in the surrounding areas of Fayette and Coweta counties over time. The growth that is occurring in the areas surrounding PTC is of extreme importance to everyone in PTC. We no longer can live in “a bubble” or in isolation.

Development is occurring around PTC and is accelerating. Currently, we have very little ability to affect what that development will be as it is outside PTC’s boundaries.

A major value and attraction of PTC and this area of Atlanta is the low population density, rural expanses and its relative safety compared to other areas of Atlanta. As this growth occurs, how will it affect PTC?

I have experienced a similar situation in my previous community. My family and I lived in a community 45 miles outside Chicago where 15 years ago, when we first moved there, was an idyllic area with a low population density, plenty of rural areas and relatively low crime.

Unfortunately, that situation didn’t last long. The growth in that area was, and still is, tremendous. Our town chose to minimize their city limit growth for a list of reasons which didn’t protect them from the surrounding growth.

Because they didn’t own the surrounding lands they had no say in the development that occurred but suffered all the consequences of the growth (traffic, schools, infrastructure, taxes, crime etc.).

Meanwhile another town, which was very large, that was initially several miles from our town began annexing the surrounding area at a rapid rate, and before long this large town had doubled its size and they expanded to within a short distance of our town.

They proceeded to do their own development without regard to our town. The results were high-density developments, higher crime, shopping malls, strip malls, big box stores everywhere (of which our town got all of the traffic and congestion with none of the tax revenues), redrawn school boundaries, higher taxes to pay for new schools and infrastructure costs, massive traffic that clogged all the roads whether they were two-lane, four-lane or, six-lane roads.

Had our town annexed these surrounding areas we would have been the ones in control and would have determined the zoning, housing density, green spaces, etc, but we didn’t and we lost in the end. I do not want that scenario repeated here.

The only way for PTC to have real influence over these surrounding areas is for PTC to own the surrounding areas and/or be a key player in a regional government that has control over these areas: Fayette and Coweta county governments.

Currently, due to PTC’s size and population within Fayette County, PTC has some influence. However, PTC’s influence will decline as new communities grow and we stay the same size. PTC has very little if any support within Coweta County as we are not within its borders.

If PTC owns its surrounding areas then we can control how they grow. What constitutes “the surrounding area for PTC” is a topic for discussion but that discussion needs to take place.

The only way PTC can control its destiny is through annexation and control of our surrounding lands. Just because we annex these areas doesn’t mean they have to be developed. These areas can be zoned rural agriculture, green spaces, nature preserves or low-density housing if we choose but, it will be PTC doing the zoning and development, not someone else.

I believe that we need to take a long-term view of not just PTC’s current city limits but the areas that surround us and determine what we want this entire community to look like in the future.

Do we want to be in control of our current quality of life or, have some else be in control of it? This will determine what we do with our annexation discussions today and going forward.

S. Allen

Peachtree City, Ga.

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