Peachtree City has continued to evolve from its earliest conceptual plans, which envisioned a targeted build out of 80,000 people, to its present day population of 36,000 and reputation as one of the top ten most desirable places to live.

The quality of life that we enjoy so much today can not only be traced to our community’s founding fathers’ foresight, but also to the tireless efforts of those citizens throughout the years whose wisdom helped mold and modify our story into a success.

As with every generation, we face new challenges.

9/11 brought external terrorism to our shores. Former third world countries like China and India have become economic powerhouses that now infringe upon industries traditionally dominated by our country.

Here in Peachtree City, we are beginning to see the green pastures that have always lined our corridors being turned into traffic bearing commercial developments.

Understandably, many of us find this unsettling. How we respond will determine whether we continue to flourish in this new world, or whether we are fated to suffer the ills of rampant development and increasing crime. I believe we can flourish, but it takes the right imagination, determination, and motivation. We must not fail to take action.

Peachtree City is not Switzerland. We cannot just shutdown our borders if external events are not to our liking.

Problems in our future for the most part will not come from within our city’s limits. Because of this, we must reach out to our neighboring jurisdictions. We have to overcome the petty insecurities that divide us and find a way to share the secret of our success… that a well-defined plan and consistent application will yield very desirable results.

Good neighbors always help each other. This means that we must take a proactive role as a regional leader and learn to share some of our resources that traditionally we have not been willing to do. If we don’t take these steps, uncontrolled development attracted by our demographics will continue to ring us and ruin us.

We need to fill our existing commercial vacancies before we add more retail space to our inventory.

We must remain vigilant against crime and continue to improve our EMS services as more seniors locate here.

We need to determine whether our police and fire department officers are appropriately compensated and if not, we need to correct this deficiency.

And we need to thoughtfully consider whether each future redevelopment proposal presented is actually beneficial to our net quality of life.

Peachtree City. It really is a great place to live!

Mark Hollums
Candidate Post 2