TDK: The High Density Sellout

AJC’s Wooten Hit Home Run on High Density Development(again)

I’ll admit it right off the bat, I’ve never been a big fan of the AJC’s token conservative Jim Wooten. His usual column is full of bullet points and no serious commentary. However, Wooten is lighting a fire on the high density development issue and we need to pay attention to what he’s got to say.

“One [thought for state lawmakers] would be a new state law limiting the ability of cities and counties to add to traffic congestion woes by zoning for density higher than the carrying capacity of existing roads,” said Wooten. “Another would be to create incentives to push jobs to places such as Coweta County … Coweta has the nation’s longest work commute – 51.6 minutes.”

“The check on high-density zoning would force cities and counties to discontinue their practice of creating unlivable communities by overpopulating areas that lack the infrastructure to maintain the residential quality of life. In some places, high density is most appropriate: In the neighborhoods around rail stations and adjacent to interstate highways, for example.” Then Wooten finishes by saying, “It's congestion, stupid. Bring us a plan to fix it — or quit adding density in areas that make it worse.”

The massive TDK development is going to do nothing but eat up all of our road capacity. Logsdon, Seabaugh, Hunter or whoever you want to blame is responsible for turning east Coweta into Peachtree City/Fayette County’s worse nightmare.

The developers don’t care about the local residents, they build and move on. Our local governments are actively deciding (and voting) that life is going to change for us. They could care less about our future and our road capacity just as Wooten said.

Wooten hit the bullseye about Coweta not creating any high wage jobs. They are raking in manufacturing and retail, so we are guaranteed that the people in the TDK monster will be hitting the road with us to Atlanta everyday. Even worse, when a higher paying job opens up in Peachtree City, we now have thousands of new people to compete with for the few positions.

We’ll look back on this year and say it was the turning point for when things started to decline. Thanks a lot Chamber of Commerce, Direct PAC, Bob Lenox and Harold Logsdon, you’ve lied to us and now we’re going down.

Spear guy, no one lied - they were just too smart to talk

Submitted by mudcat on Tue, 09/05/2006 - 6:42pm.

All the people you mentioned knew what was going to happen 10 or 12 years before Logsdon became mayor (well, maybe he didn't - but everyone else did).

PCDC had that land under contract in the late 1980's and again in the 90's. All the mayors since Frady understood the deal. The fact that you think it was cooked up recently by some developer-based conspiricy is horse crap.

Run for office and get elected (if you can) then listen to all those that train you, brief you, educate you and try to influence you and then see if your outlook on this stuff is still the same. I really, really doubt that it will be.
meow

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Lying Or Omitting To Tell The Truth?

Submitted by Spear Road Guy on Tue, 09/05/2006 - 11:46pm.

M-Cat, is there really any difference between lying and omitting to tell the truth?

Honestly, Pace and the Chamber of Commerce purposefully deceived everyone with the "traffic relief" bs. There's no getting around it.

Vote Republican

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Spear Road Guy nails it again

Submitted by ptctaxpayer on Wed, 09/06/2006 - 9:05am.

Spear Road Guy nails it again...This was blatant fraud. The worst thing is that the developers got us taxpayers to pay for their road to nowhere.

At least Hofrichter had the honor to stand up and admit that his decision to support the road should maybe be reconsidered.

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Lying is lying

Submitted by mudcat on Wed, 09/06/2006 - 5:20am.

Lying is when you know something is false and state that it is true. Keeping one's mouth shut and saying nothing about a potential future problem is good politics. Morally, it is the equivilent of lying, but it is also something all politicians at every level do every day.
meow

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Long time, no chat..

Submitted by McDonoughDawg on Tue, 09/05/2006 - 4:27pm.

I finally had a chance to actually ride over to the Coweta side and see exactly where McIntosh/Reese etc come into play in this area. I didn't realize that McIntosh lines up with Hwy 154 that heads straight to I-85. I can't for the life of me, see why ALL the commuters from this area being proposed would come into PTC and then up 74, when such a direct route to the interstate exists. Certainly some will, but not all. It's actually closer to I-85 going this route, although you are a little further south. Less red lights etc going the 154 route too.

Like Dunn says in today's paper, there is not much Fayette Can do about this (the development in Coweta), and I think his point is valid, that if TDK extension doesn't get built, 54 will beat all the traffic coming into Fayette County. I'll say this, it's in the Coweta Citizens hands, there is an awful lot of undeveloped land in that area.

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McDonoughDawg Welcome Back TDK

Submitted by Spear Road Guy on Tue, 09/05/2006 - 11:41pm.

McDonoughDawg, good to have you back by the way, the only comment I can offer to your post is if Hwy. 154 is such a great idea then why are Cowetans heading up 74? I drive with them every morning.

And why are the traffic numbers so high on 54?

But you've got to know that the million feet of shopping is going to be a mighty blow. Go look at the Pavilion parking lots - that's what it's like. You know personally, this how things got cranking in Henry County. I saw it in Cobb and Gwinnett.

Jim Wooten's high density piece in the AJC hit the mark. Don't build it dense if you can't afford to pump up the infrastructure.

Vote Republican

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I agree about the retail..

Submitted by McDonoughDawg on Wed, 09/06/2006 - 1:01pm.

That generates lots of traffic. That seems like way too much for that area. It's very rural now, and I don't see it supporting anywhere near that kind of footage in the next 10 years.

As far as 154, it needs to be widened, I'm sure many use it now, but it needs to be fostered and made better as an alternative for the area. I could see folks from this area using it when the road is finished through to Coweta. Which I'm 99.9% sure is going to go through.

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