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Hallmark of local governments: Continuing failure to plan Our current local political environment evokes the old proverb, “He who fails to plan, plans to fail.” The educational SPLOST was narrowly approved by the voters of Fayette County. The additional sales tax can best be described as a Board of Education’s attempt to correct a massive deficiency in planning. The lack of due diligence with not setting aside funds to purchase new computers, granting pay raises without the necessary funding, building schools in the wrong locations, adding capacity at a time when the student population is declining, etc., caused a budgetary black hole. A mother of two from Fayetteville wrote me to say she was voting in favor of the E-SPLOST because she was not willing to let her children suffer at the hands of a blundering Board of Education who could not manage the affairs of the school system. Unfortunately, the Board of Education dropped back to a position of, “We’ll figure it out later.” In June of 2007, Peachtree City Mayor Harold Logsdon organized a town hall meeting to “discuss the area growth, transportation and redevelopment issues that will impact Peachtree City over the next 50 years.” As an invited speaker, I thought the meeting would be a wonderful springboard for planning the city’s future. I love the way Alan Lakein says, “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” One of the key points I made in my presentation was, in the future, the least dense areas in metro Atlanta will be the most sought after communities. There are some real estate agents who think their survival in this area depends upon a multitude of houses being built year-after-year, when what we really need is a strong, less congested community where demand comfortably exceeds capacity, creating healthy returns for us all. (For proof, look at the areas where the sub-prime mortgage crisis has devastated communities.) Since 2006, Peachtree City has approved annexations and rezonings for thousands of new homes, new school children, new automobiles on our roads. In addition, the West Village, now known as Wilksmoor, has been one of the most poorly orchestrated land planning operations in the city’s history. The failure to master-plan all of the parcels into one logical development strategy has been painful to watch. There are not enough votes on council to override the unconvincing, piecemeal land planning actions of Mayor Logsdon and Council members Boone and Plunkett. The answer for the mayor’s three-member majority always seems to be permitting a larger concentration of new houses with each developer request. The big box development and the ill-advised traffic signal on Ga. Highway 54 West is the antithesis of good land and transportation planning. In fact, many of us felt the sting of betrayal when Council member Plunkett and Mayor Logsdon both wrote articles in favor of the big box developer, citing they had no choice but to allow the big box development because of the developer’s property rights. Mayor Logsdon had to audacity to say, “In the case of Highway 54 West, our power was limited because the land was zoned decades ago when the area was envisioned as the major commercial center of the city.” He later said, “But we can’t use powers we don’t have, or deprive select property owners of their rights to their property” (PTC Update, October 2008). Now wait a minute. The mayor and Council member Plunkett voted to exempt the developer from our big box ordinance. They sold the developer city property so he could build the big box. They wrote a lopsided developer agreement saying the city would not oppose the application for a traffic signal for the development. Finally, they initiated some political persuasion on the Georgia Department of Transportation, trying to approve a traffic signal that had been denied twice before. Does anyone really believe the mayor and Council member Plunkett had no choice but to approve that mess? Give us a break! “Logsdon said there’s no doubt that even without the light the shopping center would ultimately be developed” (The Citizen, Dec. 23, 2008). That’s funny because we were told the big box plan would be null and void if the traffic signal was not implemented. As I pointed out at the town hall meeting, Mayor Logsdon and Council members Boone and Plunkett know the official Coweta County transportation plans project all roadway connections into Peachtree City to be at level of service “F” (the worst possible) in the future. So, why throw a wrench into the works and cause even more congestion with a traffic signal which does not comply with state and federal engineering standards? It is common sense, as proved in years past, that congestion on Hwy. 54 eventually disrupts the vital intersection of highways 54 and 74. Regrettably, it looks as if we have experienced deterioration in planning since the town hall meeting a couple of years ago. I will leave you with the bewildering words of the mayor who wants to force the installation of several real traffic impediments on Hwy. 54 West: “‘There’s so much traffic on 54,’ Logsdon said. ‘Developers want to build where there’s a lot of traffic and there is a lot of traffic. And a lot of it is just standing still, unfortunately,’ Logsdon said” (The Citizen, 12-23-08). I see no institutional knowledge, no vision for the future and a misaligned set of priorities. [Steve Brown is the former mayor of Peachtree City. He can be reached at stevebrownptc@ureach.com.] login to post comments | Steve Brown's blog
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