PTC to welcome return of curbside signs for yard, home sales?

Tue, 02/14/2006 - 4:34pm
By: John Munford

Yard sale signs just may make a comeback in Peachtree City after all.

Over the years, yard sale patrons have come to depend on the tiny beige signs, which point the direction to various yard sales throughout town.

They’ve been missing in large part since last June, when the City Council approved sign ordinance changes that banned all signs from being displayed on city rights of way. Gone too was the convenience factor, as yard sale patrons had to do more homework (and map work) to make sure they were heading in the right direction.

Thursday night, the City Council will consider changes to the sign ordinance that will once again allow the yard sale signs to be placed in the rights of way.

There will be, of course, some limitations. The signs can’t be placed until after 7 p.m. the evening prior to the sale, and they must be removed after the sale is completed.

And, as usual, the city will only allow the use of the beige yard sale signs sold at City Hall. The changes proposed by city staff also would allow the return of real estate directional signs to the rights of way as well.

After the yard sale signs were banned from right of way, the city allowed residents to advertise yard sales on the city’s Web site, and will continue to do so, officials said.

In other business, Council will also consider a request to connect a 60-home subdivision on Redwine Road to the city’s sewer system. The request, from Scarbrough and Rolader Development LLC would avoid the necessity of using septic systems for the 218-acre development, only 87 acres of which will be developed.

Part of Camp Creek and Whitewater Creek run on the property, and those areas would be protected with 31 acres of greenspace, according to a letter to the city from Robert F. Rolader. The parcel is located just outside the city limits, Rolader said.

The development company would pay for the infrastructure to hook up to the sewer system, and the school system has already agreed to allow the necessary easements, Rolader said.

In his letter, Rolader noted that the city sewer system was previously extended to serve the Starr’s Mill school complex and The Chimneys subdivision. But the latter was accounted for when the previous owner of the sewer system, an arm of Peachtree City Development Corporation, sold the sewer system to the city in the mid-90s.

Although the sewer system is operated by the council-appointed Peachtree City Water and Sewer Authority, the council must approve any extension of the city’s sewer service beyond the city limits. This fact had been in dispute last year as the authority sought to approve a plan to provide sewer access to the town of Senoia.

That proposed deal has languished on the table and may be dead for good as the winds of political change in Senoia saw several new council members elected in November. Senoia already has its own sewer system and instead could choose to increase its capacity if town leaders wish to do so.

But the proposal opened a rift between the City Council and WASA, the latter group contending that it could approve the Senoia proposal because Senoia would be paying to extend its sewer lines to the city’s water treatment plant, and so technically WASA would not be extending its sewer lines.

Council will also consider several changes to its recently-adopted golf cart ordinance that added the $12 fee for new decals every five years. The new language clarifies that out-of-city golf cart owners will have to pay the $12 decal fee every five years in addition to the annual $60 fee to maintain their registration since those persons do not pay city property taxes to fund golf cart path improvements.

The other change suggested by staff would require the purchaser of a new or used golf cart to pay the proposed $5 transfer fee instead of the person selling the cart.

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