Look at all the new frontage they are building with non tenants in place. And the empty stores and such.

There is too much pressure on small businesses.

Retail is not the answer. I have seen this over and over. Build, bulid build and then too much vacancy.

What does Newnan have we do not?

And using an elderly family member as an example, many go to Fayetteville and Newnan, not because they have something unique, but to do the drive.

One thing we could use here, is a Golden Corral. We don't have a good buffet here. And that does draw us there at times.

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

That area needs to stay Industrial, although I see the benefit in giving them some leeway for O & I zoning. Some of the bigger buildings appear to be being divided up for smaller offices.

The shopping center in Newnan, if that’s what you call it, where BJ’s is, is busting at the seams.

I went to the movies there a few weeks ago and almost got lost. That thing is huge and still growing. Add the retail space that’s being developed along Hwy. 34 towards Newnan and they could pay the national debt if they implemented a SPLOST.

I’m not saying I want uncontrolled retail, but I see a LOT of money leaving Fayette County going into Coweta. That’s money that could be spent here.

As for spec. building, I see more of that in the ‘office’ variety around here. Up near Westpark, there has to be several 100,000’s of square feet of vacant office space and it’s still being developed.

High tech would be great, I just don’t know of any plans in the works to get us some. Retail pays a greater portion of taxes than office rental does. One requires an investment of moving/recruiting highly paid people while the other simply requires separating highly paid people from their money.

Are you sure you live in PTC? Used to be a time that "regional shopping center" was a bad word. Say it ain't so bad_PTC!

Remember what the traffic was like when you went over there. Leave it in Newnan dude! We just got 54 done for cryin' out loud...

If you want to see part of the industrial park's future, drive by Aircraft Spruce and pop in one day. And no, a huge runway expansion isn't needed. Airport officials want to stretch it a bit for safety and so jets can take off with a full load of fuel in summer, but it won't attract bigger planes.

I'm not an economic development genius or even an apprentice. But common sense tells me to pitch the local UPS facility as a big plus to attract small to medium size companies with growth potential. After all, UPS can toss it on a plane at Hartsfield and get it anywhere tout suite right?

The industrial park would be a fantastic site for a college campus and it's been a dream of many eco. dev. folks for many years. Still may be a big dream but it would be fantastic!

Take a look at the east side of PTC behind the Zaxby's et al. Enough retail zoned there for a shopping center the size of Kedron Village. But save for the CVS, 2 restaurants (and the vacant one sitting there) plus the bank, the rest isn't selling. Some of the property owners are willing to look at a possible upscale residential rezoning proposal (and the city is willing to listen!).

Hi John
I have no love for retail. I certainly don’t want a Pavilion style shopping center here.

What we need is dependable tax base from somewhere.

As the PTC Development Authority has no WEB site and most of what they work on is not openly discussed, for good reason, I and several others have no idea what they are doing.

Seniors are for the most part on fixed incomes and don’t pay any substantial taxes that go towards the schools system. So a retirement community doesn’t sound to promising.

A small college is okay by me. Any idea where we get one? Due to the land constraints I’m not sure just how big a college you could put in that area of town. Any idea of the taxes a college could generate? And if you’re already worried about traffic, than a collage may not be the answer. Besides, I would imagine that would consume a substantial amount of the cities police resources.

I don’t see anyone beating down our door to relocate any Hi-Tech here. How much office space do we already have that’s sitting empty? And the developers are still building more.

The industrial jobs we do have are lower paying jobs that are usually filled by a large percentage of people from other counties. I work in Atl. but spend my money here near my home. The people that are employed in the industrial areas most likely do the same. So that’s not working real well for us.

Eateries and or restaurants come and go too quickly, other than the fast food types. As far as I’m concerned we have a reasonable number of them now. They don’t employ a large local staff either. A few better restaurants aren’t going to have any impact on revenue for the city. What fast food places seem to generate most of is trash along the roadways.

That leaves retail. What that could be at this point is unknown.

I’m open to other suggestions, I don’t have any.

What about companies who want to relocate their headquarters out of the big cities. They all don't have to have high rise building's. Convert the vacant industrial space. High paid CEO's and support staff.

I guess since your so against the elderly, you plan to kick the bucket before you become elderly.

"The elderly do not spend a bunch of money liberally. They keep demanding more entitilements, as senior centers, tax and other breaks."

Oh yeah this is so much different from the parasite family people here isn't it??? You know the ones: their kids have such low IQs that when they are bored the only activity they can come up with is to break the law repeatedly.
Now we have to hire at least 4 more police officers to handle all of the extra crime here. (and this summer has truely been off the charts with it)
Now these same parasite parents want a teen center, more activity fields, more organized activities of any kind so their little thugs will be taken care of. The key thing here is they don't want any part of taking care of their thugs. You and I and the rest of the taxpayers are supposed to foot the bill.!! Then they want extra programs at school and more schools added.(this all to accomadate people who breed like rabbits on crystal meth) These parasite parents GET A TAX WRIGHT OFF FOR EVERY KID THEY HAVE, and guess who gets stuck with the bill??
Oh go on.......give it a shot...you can do it,... if you try hard. Yeah, thats right everyone else who was responsible with family planning (ie only have the number you can afford, and can spend time with and discipline).
When it comes to comparing senior citizens and parasite parents, I would much rather spend my tax dollars on the seniors, at least they are law abiding.

I'm afraid we spend the same amount of tax dollar whether we support the seniors or the parasit families, but the seniors have proved to be more worthy.

A balanced community is a healthier community.

One dominated by any age group lacks.

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

Right now all we have is an epidemic of thug worthless teens. At this rate we will never be a balanced community.

Indeed there are issues with SOME groups of teens. Not all.

There are also impacts by elderly that are negative, but not seen because of the fewer numbers.

That is why a balance, demographically, is needed. It never allows one age bracket to become dominate and unstoppable.

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

These thug worthless kids are going to drive off all of the good people and lower our property values.

Lets take the issues raised by PTC Guy one at a time.

High skilled jobs:
What about attracting state and Federal agencies here? NOT the INS detention facility but say the IRS, GSA, FEMA or Treasury. Each leases 100, 000’s of square feet of office space in downtown Atlanta at tremendous prices per square foot. Aren’t there a number of empty office buildings here?

Now to be fair, the Fed. wont be paying taxes on anything they rent, but the employees themselves might be attracted to live in this area. At the vary least they will spend money at the local businesses.

How about companies like GA Power or ATT? Just about any company that has “office staff” will do.

This city was based on three places when it was designed. One was Reston VA another was Columbia MD and the third was somewhere in Texas. All three of these places were designed to accommodate the “high tech” not industrial side of the equation. What are they doing to survive? Does the City Council or County Council know?

On that note, does anyone know if the councils are doing anything to attract “non-industrial” new blood?

Retirement Community:
I can’t see that flying. The tax base needed to support the city services isn’t there. I’m surprised that GA hasn’t yet exempted seniors from certain taxes, namely education based taxes.

As far as the health care industry, don’t get your hopes up. Several DR. friends of mine have closed up many of there offices and consolidated here to PTC. They’re not sure how long they can hold out with the insurance companies and Medicaid/Medicare.

To give you an example of that industry, I’m told that in order to rent office space in the new buildings near the hospital the Dr’s themselves have to pay for there own liability insurance directly. I’m not talking about medical malpractice insurance. The building owners won’t include it in the rental price.

FEMA is out. They are taking part of Ft. Gillam.

As for the Reston and Columbia points. A ton of adminstrative people live there, especially Columbia. NSA, remember.

I agree medical is struggling. But it will be around. Somehow.

Here, in Fayette, seniors are exempt from school tax.

The government services is a good idea, on one hand, but I am concerned with the continued autmation.

Could end up with a big building with almost no people.

Not to mention everyone is competing for such types to locate with them.

What does Fayette have that is special or distinct enough to set it apart?

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

Seniors are NOT exempt from school tax in Fayette. They pay slightly less than non-seniors.

George Wingo says

65 Years of Age or Older
If you were 65 years of age or older by January 1st and the Georgia Taxable Income (Line 15 of your Georgia Tax Return) of both husband and wife (joint return) does not exceed $15,000 on your previous year’s tax return, you may be entitled to a 100% school exemption with Fayette County. Proof of age and tax returns are needed to apply for this exemption. Qualifying for this exemption would relieve your tax bill of all school and school bond taxes.

The new exemption for age 62 years of age by January 1st, raises the school exemption from $4,000 to $10,000 if your net income is less than $10,000. To qualify for this exemption you need to bring in proof of age (drivers license) and the Federal Tax Return for your household.

Obviously, my source on this qualified for 100%. But 50 or 100% is more than slightly less.

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

Short of the schools in Fayette not much other than space.

GOD knows it’s a rotten place to commute from.

Another thought I had was that most all large corporations the Fed. and state agencies have “data centers” that they hide in small communities all over the country. They’re designed to remain operational in “out of the way” places. HP, IBM, UNISYS, ORACLE even MicroSoft have several of them. They each employ hundreds of people.

I guess the key point for that would be proximately to an already existing one, if there is one.

But a good idea, I think.

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

That is one of my concerns.

Seniors overwhelming vote against anything school.

One nice town, which I will not name, in northern FL is overwhelmingly senior.

Everything was modern, when I went through some years ago, except the schools. Poor shape and looked like they were still in the 60s.

Interesting read on the subject.

At the same time though, industry is moving out of the country at an alarming rate. So, a question there is, attract what industry?

Indiana and Ohio, in example, had a lot of industry. They are getting slammed left and right with plants moving to Canada and Mexico.

Not trying to argue here, just get info and opinions from many to get a clearer picture of our options.

And I note, the 'rich elderly' are a declining breed. As the aging process moves forward, the new elderly have less and less of the green.

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

To focus on that alone, I must say clean and hi tech. One of the most sucessful new "industries" in PTC is World Airways. They are in a low impact office building and have flex time for the workers.

The industrial park, which was designed in the 1950's needs rethinking. Smaller sites, a residential component, day care and some retail would be workable. Just get rid of these prigs who object to change and density and get on with growing the city.

You hit the bulls eye R.W. Morgan. One of the biggest wastes of our time, money and valuable land was the FAA facility on Dividend. Why in the world were we stupid enough to go out and solicit for a facility that takes up prime real estate, pays no taxes and contributes almost nothing to the local community? We've got a lot of rethinking to do.

Vote Republican

This company is in the same category as is Halliburton. As the tax money goes, so goes the profits! They haul our military people all around the war, since our military people can no longer haul themselves. Just keep sending the money to Washington (and to PTC it appears from the new budget) and jobs will be plentiful.

Everyone know your are Brown and mow we know you are a whining liberal. Bobby's main point is to get people rethinking the type of industries to attract to the industrial park instead of using a 50-year old template. No one but you would consider screening those businesses for political philosophy or requesting financial statements before approving their building. Socialist pig!
meow

Dell, EDS, and thousands of other companeys get their money from govt. contracts. EDS wouldn't exist without being a govt. contractor. We might as well get some of it back. These corporations still have to rent office space, and the employees still have to pay SS, state and federal tax.

Take a drive down 66 just outside of D.C. You won't be able to point to a building that isnt a govt. contractor.

You are correct the the Fed. is spending our tax dollars. Now how about we try and profet from it as well?

And how are we to lure them here, away from the states they are currently located in?

Remember, incentives normally mean we foot their tax bills for 10 years or so.

Then, they can just move elsewhere.

Always a catch, isn't there?

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

Do we need to do something with the airport? Longer runways for larger plaines? The new road is going to have to be redesigned anyway.

After all, the approach and takeoff routes are over Planterra and those folks need something to look at while there creeping down the road.

That has been an issue for a number of years.

Some want. Others say getting larger planes, including jets, in here would be a noise disaster.

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

Sounds like Dulles airport in VA. The airport was built then the neighborhoods followed.

After a while the neighborhoods started to complain about all the noise from the airport.

Adding extra runways and longer ones will add areas the planes did not fly over before.

Bigger planes have to use longer approach and take off air space as well.

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

Please do remember however that bigger planes use more gas and require more services and storage. It brings in salary money. To heck with the houses flown over!

There’s no need for “additional” runways but they do need to be longer.

To work off of your post; how do we attract someone here? If we’re going to have to eat the taxes anyway, then why not try to attract the Fed. and state agencies here?

I realize that most agencies need a “presents” in the Atlanta area but almost all Fed. and state agencies have office space in several places downtown.

I think the FEMA disaster site is in north Atlanta way away from down town on purpose.

PTC can provide that same option.

Yes they do need presents from Atlanta, and also presence. You could present presents to them in my presence, and maybe I would get some presents in your presence?

Spell check hid that one from me.