It is not every day that community members openly advocate for a development proposal. But that is the case near Sharpsburg as local non-profit Council for Sustainable Growth (CSG) has established an information center to advocate for the county commission’s approval of the Twelve Parks proposal by Peachtree City developer Pathway Communities.

The subject of an upcoming public hearing before commissioners April 10, the proposed Twelve Parks community is located on 450.86 acres in the area of Ga. Highway 54, McIntosh Trail, Reese Road and North Road. Homes are expected to range from the mid-$200,000s to nearly $400,000. The development would also include a 15-acre commercial center and a seven-acre commercial tract, both slated for future development.

Plans call for 187.12 acres of open space with an additional 107.43 acres of secondary acreage, according to county Director of Planning Robert Tolleson. The development will include parks, amenity areas and walking trails. The Coweta County Water & Sewerage Authority would provide water and on-site wastewater treatment ownership and management, according to the proposal.

For their part, CSG President Rick Risley said the organization is a citizens’ group that believes in engaging in open dialogue and arriving at an understanding of the basis for developments proposed for the area. Though a relatively new group now counting 31 members, with a little over a year since its formation, Risley said the questions on the table are not new and are more important than ever for the future of Coweta County.

“Developments are coming. So how can we make them sustainable? Will we look back 10-15 years from now and say we made the right decisions?” Risley asked. “This non-profit was formed because there were three basic groups of individuals in Coweta County. Those who weren’t involved, those who had an opinion and their argument was basically to say ‘no’ and those who were for something but were not coming forth. The commissioners don’t hear from the people who are for something when they don’t come forward. The people who are against something, the commissioners hear from them all the time. But the people who are forming opinions based on misinformation were not accurate. So the purpose of this thing is to get information out to let people know what the alternative is and to try to get the bar raised as high as possible.”

Risley was quick to say that he opposed the earlier attempt to have the previous version of the development annexed into Sharpsburg. Pathway eventually withdrew the proposal.

“We opposed (the annexation) because Sharpsburg could not provide any infrastructure whatsoever. It was an annexation simply for the purposes of revenue without the ability to even police the development,” Risley said.

Today, said Risley, the reason CSG is behind the current proposal is because it makes sense and because the alternative for opposing it is unacceptable.

“This land will be developed. There is no question about it. It’s owned by a developer right now and it will be developed,” he said. “The alternative is to have (several) individual developers come in and building on septic without the requirements or road improvements that Pathway will be putting in. This (proposal) isn’t perfect, but the thing that attracted me to it, to support it, is because Pathway has worked to develop this into what is now an environmentally sound community. This proposal has changed dramatically for the better. Less density, less commercial, no townhomes, no septic tanks and no spray field application.”

A public hearing on the Twelve Parks proposal will be held April 10 at the commission office.

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