Over the past year we have weathered some truly unforeseen storms and I have been proud of the resilience that our community has shown. The council meeting last week was another example of this.
There is so much good about our community and I appreciate the passion with which citizens came out to the meeting to express their opinions. It is now up to us to come together to conquer the future challenges our city will face.
With the housing market and commercial property sales now in a slight upswing, we will continue to have opportunities for redevelopment. Peachtree City is now 56 years old and there are many areas of our city that need to be redeveloped.
While community does come first, it is tax revenue from businesses that keep our property taxes low and at a manageable level. Opportunities have not been plentiful for our city over the past few years due to the economy.
We don’t want to be perceived to be anti-business, so we need to be smart about redevelopment and welcome things that complement our community.
This is why each opportunity needs to be cultivated and nurtured to see if it is a good fit for Peachtree City before being put through our zoning and variance processes.
Our investigation of viable business opportunities should not be seen as a betrayal of public trust; but as a vetting process of an opportunity to be presented to the public.
To maintain our infrastructure, our city needs business revenue to offset the costs to our citizens. You need to look no further than our roads which are now eight years behind on repaving, to know that we have to look at every revenue producing project presented to us; to do otherwise would be negligent. Nobody wishes to keep raising property taxes.
Finally, Thursday’s council meeting was a shining example of what is good about our community and our country. Both sides of the debate had an opportunity to present their arguments, pro and con.
Freedom of speech is a right that we as Americans have fought to protect since our country’s inception. An intrinsic part of this inalienable right is that both sides of an argument should be given the chance to be heard, unencumbered by the other.
In the end the council voted unanimously against this specific proposal. With the budget discussions quickly approaching I trust that our council will respectfully deliberate and work as one to do what is best for our city and its citizens in the coming fiscal year.
Vanessa Fleisch, mayor
Peachtree City, Ga.
