Council wants to wait for Court of Appeals to rule in West Village annexation lawsuit

The Peachtree City Council punted a developer’s request to deannex just over an acre of land to help nullify a lawsuit filed challenging a 648-home annexation along the Tyrone border that was approved in May 2007.

The unanimous motion was to table the matter until the Georgia Court of Appeals could rule on the case. The motion came immediately after council met briefly in executive (closed) session to get legal advice from City Attorney Ted Meeker since resident David Worley threatened to file a second lawsuit if the city deannexed the land.

Brent West Village sought the deannexation to create a 10-foot strip of land to connect two parcels it does not own. The strip is necessary to comply with a state law that does not allow annexations to create “islands” of unincorporated land, said attorney Mark Forsling.

“We feel like we’re going to win the lawsuit in the court of appeals but we applied to deannex this 10 foot strip just to be sure,” Forsling said.

The Fayette County Commission recently approved the deannexation, and the city’s planning commission has also recommended approval.

The May 2007 annexation involved approval of a 648-home plan, with those homes to be targeted to adults 55 and over.
Worley filed the lawsuit challenging the 400-acre annexation more than a year ago.

The case is now being considered by the Georgia Court of Appeals, a process that could take a year or more.

Worley asked council to allow the matter to be considered by the new council members in January after they are sworn in.

“This deannex is an attempt to save the 800 acre annexation of the west village and as such is a very important issue for Peachtree City,” Worley said.

Worley contended the unincorporated islands makes the annexation illegal.

“You can’t deannex something that you never properly annexed in the first place,” Worley said. “In effect passing this ordinance tonight is an admission that the annexation was done illegally in the first place.”

Worley also said if the city deannexed the land he would file another lawsuit to rectify the matter. He suggested the suit would be resolved by the Court of Appeals by March.

In addition to the annexations, another development is at stake: that of the MacDuff Parkway extension which would be brought northward from its current terminus to Senoia Road, giving access to Ga. Highway 74.

A number of city residents have previously expressed concern about traffic in the Wilksmoor (West) Village whose only way to and from MacDuff Parkway is on the heavily-traveled Ga. Highway 54 West.

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