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Haddix: Updates on PTC issuesTue, 04/28/2009 - 3:09pm
By: Letters to the ...
It has been awhile since I placed anything in the paper. Seemed like a good time to bring some issues up to date. Outsourcing landscaping shaved about $940,000 off the budget with no reduction in services. That translates to about .52 mill in property tax. Changes I have been pushing for, not without resistance, in The Fred, Tennis Center and Kedron Center Management should realize savings in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. While not popular with candidates, I cannot guarantee there will not be a .25 to .375 mill tax increase. You have seen no-tax-increase pledges turn quickly into tax increases after elections. Some savings are postponed expenditures, not eliminated costs. I oppose a proposed across the board pay cut. That is just too damaging to the lives of our workers and the economy of Peachtree City. Taxes, fees and such are how cities receive income. So, the key to our bottom line is getting more good-paying jobs here to fill homes that fill retail spaces which sell to residents, along with streamlined budgets, not massive pay cuts and tax increases. One-time income from one-time fees on development and other sources are good when the development is needed and fits Peachtree City. Otherwise, they add more empty space, which increases long-term infrastructure and service costs more than they generate income and damage the Peachtree City vision, village concept and quality of life. The Callula Hill development, for example, has great one-time fees. But, putting homes next to industry and the airport, with access through the industrial park, is not in keeping with the Peachtree City vision, village concept or the land use and comprehensive plans. Nor is it wanted by the airport, is discouraged by the FAA and not supported by the citizens of Peachtree City. There is no news on the Ga. Highway 54 West light application. That may take months. Currently, retail chains are rarely signing leases on new spaces. The AutoZone at the new Wilshire shopping center is an exception because it is a business that thrives in economic bad times. We can see the fruits of continually building retail space by journeying to Newnan. Fayette has the second highest retail square footage in the metro area, just behind Coweta. Peachtree City has an over 9 percent vacancy rate based on square footage, which skews the real impact of when you look around and see so many empty store fronts. Same on the residential front. Why annex, rezone and build when we have hundreds of houses for sale and hundreds more off the market because they will not sell or cannot be sold at the current depressed prices? Jobs first is the key. Don’t further discourage people from buying here by seeing so many empty stores, large lists of homes for sale and building what detracts from our vision. Protect home values and salability as much as we can. We recently voted to deny a sign variance for World Airways. When some seemed to be looking for compromise, I made the motion to deny. While on signs, our sign ordinance does not cover increasingly seen walking signs. Those need to be added next to animated signs in our list of prohibited signs. On the mailbox and newspaper issue: One proposal was to mandate containers be added by mailboxes. I proposed requiring residents to remove such materials within a fixed length of time or Code Enforcement can cite them. As for the Hippocket septic tanks discussion, the purpose was to offer facts, alternatives and solutions. While no problem discussing the issue, the cost and responsibility resides with the homeowners, in my opinion, as it always has. On trash and recycling, I strongly opposed mandating recycling and a single provider for a lot of reasons. I proposed requiring providers to offer recycling with trash pickup at the same pricing, which at least three providers now voluntarily do, and adding protections from trash trucks spillage and leaking on the streets. With the passage of the requirement to offer recycling, your bill does not increase, you choose to get a recycling container and recycle or not, there are increased liability requirements to protect your and city property against damage and there are mandated cleanups for any spillage and leakage from trucks. As for the $1 charge, litter is an increasing problem. The costs of cleanup have been increasing; one Tru-Green employee is being paid to do nothing but pick up litter all week, and litter and recycling are related issues. The disappearing landfills are an expense to all of us as providers have to haul farther and farther to get rid of trash. I hope making at least some of the costs and impacts of litter visible on every bill will aid in stopping this expensive and easily curable problem. Stop littering and a lot of expenses will go away. It costs us all. When Rockaway Road is redirected, we will lose that big recycling center as well. There is a lot to think about on many fronts. Realities are changing and we need to change with them. We need to preserve and protect our uniqueness by finding new ways to keep what makes us special and great a part of our homes and city. We do not need to become Riverdale, the Northside or everywhere else. They went the route of malls, big boxes, big shopping centers, high rises, high density and allowing whatever made the immediate buck. Those are proving failures. We do not want to now go there ourselves. People now want to work where they live, not commute. Growth stats that decline from 2000 to date show that. About 38 percent of Fayette residents now work within Fayette County. People from Fayette County using MARTA has fallen from around 2,000 to a little more than 700. There are others that do not commute due to being retired, etc. Who is elected to the next council, mayor and posts, will have a huge impact on our future. “Build it and They Will Come” or Smart Growth thinking? Deference to developers or the citizens? Village concept or something else? More big boxes and big shopping centers or restore our village shopping centers? We are truly at a fork in the road on many fronts. Time to choose which fork we will take. Don Haddix, mayoral candidate donhaddix.com donhaddix@donhaddix.com [Haddix currently serves on the Peachtree City Council.] login to post comments![]() |