Developer Worship, Reality & Our Future

We have a few bloggers that want to bow down and worship the Almighty Developer, the holy one that created Peachtree City. It was really several different developers and an insurance company who shaped the development of the city. The Equitable Life Assurance Company was the BEST THING that ever happened to Peachtree City, not the developers. The original developer, including first mayor Joel Cowan, had some pretty wild plans, including 80,000 residents, traffic gridlock and crowded schools. Their concept was to have a self sustaining city, create mass jobs and mass housing for labor, definitely not a bedroom community. They were aiming for blue collar jobs and a blue collar housing market (Gwinnett and Clayton County style). However, they failed and the Equitable ended up holding the bag due to default.

The Equitable was the best thing that ever happened to the city because large quantities of land were in the hands of "patient" money. In other words, the Equitable didn't have to conduct a fire sale and unload it all quickly. Most people don't know that the Peachtree City Development Corporation was, at first, Equitable's planning pawns. You can get out of the box and take some planning risks if you're not sweating over the investment, thanks to Equitable. Thus, an experiment began with an emerging style that was dubbed "planned community". There would be no Peachtree City, as it currently exists, without Equitable (the insurance company).

Left up to the typical developer production of the day, you could expect Peachtree City to look like Buford Highway or Memorial Drive, both considered cutting edge for that period. Both now a blight.

The pro-developer group is arguing on the basis that it's okay to make a profit. However, I really don't think anyone is arguing that point. Instead, I think a lot of the people who have paid attention throughout the last 30 years are aggravated with the local government assisting a small group of men to be extremely profitable no matter what, and at taxpayer expense.

Peachtree City's purchase of a completely dilapidated private sewer system for a huge sum is a perfect example. Like how PCDC/Pathway always got their annexations approved and the "other" guys didn't. Or how PCDC/Pathway always sold land to the taxpayer (city) at high margins.

Does anyone know what the final price was on the Pathway land purchased for TDK with tax dollars was?

There are good developers and real bad ones. Look at the new Target. I think it turned out better than any Target I've ever seen. However, I'm not giving the developer credit for it. We all know that Steve Brown beat it out of the developer. It was in the courts and in the newspapers. Anyone that lives on Georgian Parkway will tell you it could’ve gone the wrong way for sure.

I think there is such a thing as developer greed. For example, asking for 750 units on property that is zoned and land planned for 150 homes. That would be taking advantage of the city and its residents.