City Manager Pennington presses for 20-year plan
To address what the geographic boundaries of Peachtree City might look like in 20 years the City Council on Oct. 6 commissioned city staff to formulate a proposal that would guide future annexation efforts. That proposal that might include the future annexation of more than 1,400 acres could be presented before the end of the year.
City Manager Jim Pennington said it is imperative to take a firm look at the city today and where it could be in the next 20 years. In terms of which areas are approved for annexation, the future should be approached from a planning perspective, Pennington said.
Peachtree City doesn’t have a plan on how to get to the future, including with annexations, Pennington said.
Asking for direction from the City Council, Community Services Director Jon Rorie said the city is operating from the 1985 Land Use Plan. Rorie said the initial proposal that might add more than 1,400 acres in various areas of the city should be considered only as something “potential.”
“Nothing presented here has to be,” Rorie said.
What is certain, Rorie said, is the requirement to update the city’s 20-year Comprehensive Plan for submittal in 2017. Required by the Ga. Dept. of Community Affairs, comprehensive plans contain numerous components, including a jurisdiction’s Future Land Use Map.
“So we need direction,” said Rorie. “What about the next 50 years? This presentation is on potential. It would be foolish for us to say what should be. We need input.”
Senior Planner David Rast said staff looked at the current city boundaries logically and determined four study areas for possible annexation. Those areas, which total approximately 1,450 acres, include acreage on the north, northeast, west and south sides of the current city limits. If all study areas were eventually annexed, the properties would add approximately 10 percent to the current city limits.
The (Ga. Highway) 74 North study area includes 550 acres situated south of Dogwood Trail and bordered by Ga. Highway 74 on the west. A portion of the acreage, near Hwy. 74, exists inside the Tyrone town limits.
Potential zoning for the area could be educational/institutional, agricultural/residential and, along Hwy. 74, community commercial. It was noted that the area is currently served by septic systems with wastewater that flows down-gradient to Lake Kedron.
The Highway 54 East study area includes 384 acres, with the majority of the acreage on the south side of Hwy. 54 and extending to Ebenezer Road. Zoning currently includes community commercial (including the Publix Shopping Center), manufactured home park (Shiloh Mobile Home Park), low-density residential and the Genevieve Court and Longboat developments.
The Wilksmoor study area in the expanding Wilksmoor Village on the city’s northwest side totals 66 acres and is situated immediately north of the city’s recently approved residential and industrial projects and adjacent to the Shamrock Industrial Park in Tyrone.
The Highway 74 South study area totals 439 acres on both sides of Hwy. 74 from Ga. Highway 85 on the south and extends north to include the Starr’s Mill school complex and residences on both sides of Redwine Road, particularly on the east side of Redwine up to the Jefferson Woods tract.
Each of the four study areas were broken down into annexation phases for study purposes and are not tied to a timetable for annexation, staff said.
Rorie noted that Peachtree City has an aging housing stock and an aging population, adding that the city should be cognizant of the “urban fringe” developments, such as Fischer Crossing, that have or will develop near the current city limits.
Staff asked the council for direction on the future in terms of three variables: maintain the status quo, expand the city limits to include urban fringe properties one property at a time or establish natural growth boundaries and potential annexation areas to enhance long-range planning for services such as fire and ambulance service, parks and multi-use path connections.
The council on Oct. 6 also agreed that city staff should adjust the longstanding two-step process and return with a proposal that would give planning staff additional early input and allow the city to market itself to potential annexation candidates. Staff will likely return with that recommendation before the end of the year.
