To Mayor Vanessa Fleisch and City Council members: I have lived on Hermitage Place in The Coventry subdivision for the past 29 years. I am writing to express my opposition to the building of the Great Wolf Lodge amusement park in this part of Peachtree City.
This type of development has no place in the midst of established residential neighborhoods, some of which have been in place for more than 30 years (The Coventry, Preston Chase, Wisdom Woods, Stillwater Trace). An ideal location would be adjacent to the soccer fields on Ga. Highway 74 South.
My specific objections have already been submitted to the Planning Commission for their Feb. 9, 2015 meeting.
I would be glad to copy you, if you need more detail, but in the meantime, you need to know that I have met with dozens of people from the surrounding neighborhoods and they are unanimous in their opposition to this project.
We met with the engineer representing Great Wolf last Tuesday at the Dolce facility. Approximately 40 local residents were there to express their concerns (Mike King and Vanessa Fleisch listened from the back of the room). The comments were 100 percent negative and all the residents opposed the Great Wolf Lodge at this proposed location.
Among the most significant objections were:
1. Construction of a 95-foot-tall enclosed tower which would support external multi-colored and illuminated water slide tubes. This incredible eyesore would be the tallest structure in PTC, other than the existing water and radio towers. It would be approximately 30 feet taller than the surrounding trees and overshadow Preston Chase homes less than 100 feet away.
2. Great Wolf proposes installation of an additional 4 to 5 acres of impervious surface to the Dolce property. All that surface water will run off the property into Cherry Branch Creek and flow through, or past 26 homeowner lots in the Coventry, before flowing within 100 yards of Eric Imker’s back door and dumping into the Tinsley Mill Condominium property, site of some of the most severe flooding in the history of PTC.
As a frame of reference, a 3-inch rain on that new impervious surface alone will dump an additional 370,500 gallons of water into the creek. Six inches of rain will dump 741,000 gallons of water into the creek and nine inches of rain will dump more than 1.1 million additional gallons of water into the creek. See what happens to this creek in a 2.5 inch rain storm (https://www.thecitizen.com/articles/01-26-2010/thousands-lose-power-durin… ). The City Council has no business supporting a proposal which exacerbates an existing flooding problem in a residential neighborhood.
3. The essence of a planned community is adherence to zoning and development policies which will stand the test of time, rather than erode and decay with each election cycle. Approval of this application flies in the face of everything this community has worked for during the past 50 years. City officials need to enforce existing zoning requirements, not approve variances designed to circumvent the intent of the law.
Elected officials in your position are often under pressure from developers and investors who lobby for approval of their pet projects. Sometimes that pressure even comes from fellow council members.
In this particular case, I encourage you to look at the top of the Peachtree City Organizational Chart and note that the City Council reports to the “Citizens Of Peachtree City.” They elected you and you represent them.
You have absolutely no obligation to act on behalf of a outside entity or a corporate sponsor (i.e., Great Wolf, Dolce, or Leeward Strategic Properties). Do the right thing and vote this project down when it comes before you.
Joe Henebry
Peachtree City, Ga.
