Here we go again, and again, and again.
Very few communities can protect their quality of life over time. You can find lots of examples of cities taking turns for the worse.
In most cases, the demise of municipal quality of life is usually caused by poor government decision-making. San Francisco is the most extreme example of a community that had everything going for it only to repulse both residents and visitors with an almost unbelievable decline in quality of life.
It’s remarkable that Fayette County has had such a great run on all the quality of life metrics for decades, appearing in the top five in most positive categories for the state.
One key factor that has given us more staying power is the fact we have no direct access to an interstate highway and most of the rapid runaway real estate development in the metro area over the decades has followed the interstate highway system. Likewise, Peachtree City having one master developer and patient financial backing allowed for consistent growth according to plan. We succeeded on low-density, slow growth.
Sharp shifts in development patterns are generally followed by raft of quality of life problems.
Peachtree City since the late 1990s has made a mess of the western side of the city, taking land appropriated for revenue-rich corporate headquarters and industrial uses and converting it to residential uses. The local government has no right to lament the dearth of quality corporate sites because their decisions made it so.
One of the last sizeable quality sites for corporate use is now being proposed for residential use with some retail mixed-in. Keep in mind that this site has been noted by corporate site locators as a prime location for a premier corporate headquarters.
For those who desire to see more higher paying jobs, you might want to let the mayor and council members know to stop with the residential concepts in the industrial area.
Placing the high-density residential complex squarely in the middle of the prosperous industrial area is a wholesale mistake, as has been observed for years. It has also been noted for years that we should not do anything to compromise the operations at the adjacent local airport.
When I took office as mayor back in 2002, the airport was in dire straits. It took years to get the operation back on secure footing, so let’s not ruin things by placing residential at the end of the runway.
Local airports across metro Atlanta have had constant battles with residential subdivisions in the flightpath and we should avoid it.
The road network next to Lake McIntosh does not have the capacity to handle the potential traffic volume and golf cart access is precarious at best in that area.
That site as a retail attraction, with its limited access issues and freight traffic, is a dreadful idea.
There are good reasons for the city having a moratorium on high-density apartment complexes for over a decade, including traffic and high consumption of city services.
The proposed Calistoa Lake McIntosh development would also create a heavy shift in school districts across the city.
It is also important that the city have an honest and ethical discussion related to tearing away our city’s last premier corporate job site for another residential development. The mayor and the Airport Authority Chairman, both employed in the real estate industry, should abstain from the discussion and the voting since they or their affiliated interests could be involved with the proposed development.
Certainly, the real estate developers are free to offer whatever proposals they wish, but it is incumbent upon our elected officials to firmly stand for the protection of our quality of life and for thoughtful, intelligent planning.
Steve Brown
Peachtree City, Ga.
[Brown is a former Peachtree City mayor and Fayette County commissioner]
