[Editor’s note: The following email press release was received Tuesday morning.] On Thursday, May 3, the Peachtree City mayor and Council will consider two annexation requests for the West Village area by John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods and Levitt and Sons.

As part of the public hearings, the council will also consider the development impact fees that will be imposed on each residential unit developed in the area.

State law requires a city adopting an impact fee program to establish a Development Impact Fee Advisory Committee to advise the mayor and council on setting the fees. The state is very specific that the committee must be composed of between five and 10 members, and at least 40 percent of the members must represent the development, building, or real estate industry.

At their meeting on Jan. 4, 2007, the council appointed a seven-member committee that included representatives from the Fayette County Board of Realtors, the Homebuilders Association of Midwest Georgia, the Development Authority of Peachtree City, the Peachtree City Planning Commission, and the Peachtree City Comprehensive Plan Advisory Board.

The Development Authority, Planning Commission, and Comprehensive Plan committees are composed of volunteer citizens, and council added another member of the public at large to the committee.

Public Information Officer Betsy Tyler said, “There have been several citizen questions in the past few weeks about the makeup of the impact fee committee and their recommendations.” Tyler continued, “Peachtree City was one of the first cities in Georgia to assess impact fees based on the new state laws allowing assessment for specific projects. Prior to 1993, we charged $200 per home. Now the fees range from $1,083 to over $3,700 per dwelling unit, depending on the service area and what other improvements will be needed in that part of the city.”

Tyler noted that state law also prohibits assessing impact fees for schools.

Peachtree City ordinance establishes the development impact fees “to serve, promote and accommodate orderly growth and development and to protect the public health, safety, and general welfare of the citizens of the city, and to ensure that adequate public facilities are available to serve new growth and development.”

There is a city-wide service area fee of $1,083 per dwelling unit, which includes $1,040 for recreational system improvements, $43 for the library expansion, police department expansions, and the recreation administration building.

The Development Impact Fee Advisory Committee is proposing an additional fee of $231 for the bike bridge over Ga. Highway 74, $894.21 for the West Village Fire Station, and $328.90 for the expansion of the baseball/soccer complex, for a total fee of $2,537.11 per dwelling unit if the West Village annexation requests are approved, and council approves the impact fees recommendation.

[The above press release was received from Peachtree City’s information office via email Tuesday morning, April 24.]