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Add sewer, and Fayette is gone with the wind The five Peachtree City Council members might be wondering what is the big deal about Peachtree City approving extension of city sewer lines to developments outside the city limits. Herewith some pertinent history, which seems to have escaped the current council, three of whom are just two months into their terms and two of whom have two whole years under their hats. Back yonder in 1996, Mayor Bob Lenox greatly desired that the city control what was then a developer-owned sewer system (Georgia Utilities) which ran lines only within the city limits. Lenox and a compliant council, with then-City Manager Jim Basinger running interference, rammed through a $16.3 million bond-financed purchase of the aging system in February 1997. The year-long saga involved lots of secret meetings, lots of criticism of the process by me in columns and editorials, ethics complaint filings, and an astonishing call by Lenox during a public meeting for a criminal probe by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation into The Citizen newspapers’ owners, including me, to inquire into the paper’s news sources and reports of the backroom dealings. The GBI politely declined. (Just as an aside, it marked the first time I have ever heard of a public official at the state or local level calling for a criminal investigation of a newspaper for its reporting.) Because of the controversy, the Lenox administration made some guarantees as the purchase was concluded. One of those public guarantees was that the newly acquired sewer system would never extend its sewer lines outside the city limits, except to those few parcels specifically listed in the purchase contract. Those parcels were owned by the developer selling the sewer company. One exception was made later when the Starr’s Mill school complex was being built. School officials asked if they could tie into a sewer line that ran out of southern Peachtree City a few hundred yards to a subdivision named in the sewer agreement. Since the line ran across property which the school system now owned, the city said OK. Now we discover that the city’s water and sewer authority (WASA) also approved extending sewer service to a a new church in Tyrone, near Peachtree City’s northern border. Additionally, there was a flap last year when neighboring Senoia, less than a mile west of the Starr’s Mill complex, asked if WASA would sell sewer service to them for big new subdivisions being planned. WASA made noises like it wanted to do that, citing a downturn in revenue since the closing of its biggest customer, Photocircuits. The previous council said, “Hold on, WASA has to get council’s approval before it extends sewer lines outside the city.” Nothing much has happened to that trial balloon since then. Recently, a church on the city’s southeast side asked to get hooked up to WASA’s sewer line. The county stepped in and vetoed that proposal. Now a well-known Fayetteville developer wants WASA to sewer its planned residential subdivision in the same vicinity. The Peachtree City Council, seemingly ignorant of the sewer system’s history and promises made by previous administrations, approved the request. The county commission last week announced it had not been asked about the idea, but indications are that the county will again veto any such sewering of the unincorporated county. The problem is, that may not stand up in court. So, what’s the big deal? Why not turn WASA loose to sewer as much of the unincorporated county as developers request? Because your vaunted Fayette/Peachtree City lifestyle will be sewered away with all the new sludge from massively dense new commercial and residential developments that sewer lines will allow. The only things standing in the way of Gwinnett traffic and Riverdale strip centers here in Fayette are zealously enforced county zoning restrictions and the need for at least one-acre lots to accommodate individual septic tanks. Take away the septic tanks, add in sewer lines, and your county is gone with the wind. That’s why the Peachtree City Council is so remarkably wrong on this breach of a long-standing taboo. The council, in extending sewer service beyond the city’s zoning laws and the city limits, will be acting as the prime agent to destroy the unincorporated county’s land use plan and zoning restrictions. Are the rookie council members too dense to foresee what forces they are about to unleash into the county? Do they care? Forget about annexing. Peachtree City (and Fayetteville, should it be so inclined) can undermine and make moot much of the county’s careful land planning just by saying yes to out-of-city sewer lines. It will permit a domino fall of vast and unintended proportions. These rookies seem to have no clue about the damage they are about to do to all Fayette residents, including every single soul who currently has a Peachtree City address. The rookies must wake up, get a clue, and say NO before the damage becomes irreparable. They must keep the promise made to Peachtree City residents nearly 10 years ago that the city intended for the system to serve only city residents. They must stick with the intentions of the original purchasers not to make the city system a tool for out-of-city developers to get rich with. Mark this well: Where the city sewer line goes, ever more dense development will follow. Any developer with property within 500 feet of a sewer line has the right under state law to demand to be hooked up, inside or outside the city. WASA bean counters will be happy and rookie council members will still be smiling, while you are waving goodbye to what you thought Fayette was supposed to be. login to post comments | Cal Beverly's blog
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