The first of three planned public retreat workshops begins tonight as the Peachtree City Council meets at 6:30 at City Hall. The Citizen will livestream the meeting via The Citizen Facebook page and here on this page (scroll to bottom).
City Manager Jon Rorie gave a preview of what’s to be discussed at the most recent council meeting Feb. 21. He spent an hour explaining the need to plan on spending more money for “safeguarding our community.”
High on his list to talk about tonight: The cost of repairing and maintaining the city’s aging infrastructure: Road paving, cart path upkeep, declining neighborhoods that have no watchdog homeowners associations.
The meeting, open to the public, will feature opening discussions on the city’s comprehensive plan initiatives; development/re-development initiatives and tools; public investment (one way of describing taxes and fees) for infrastructure maintenance and updates; private investments in community improvement districts.
Also to be discussed: The increasing traffic and coming developments on Ga. Highway 54 West and East; issues with Huddleston Road; and perhaps the most potentially contentious of all: Code enforcement.
That last part has to do with deciding what is the city’s role in making sure owners and tenants keep their properties up to minimum aesthetic standards and what those standards should be.
“We’re celebrating 60 years of Peachtree City this year, so the Mayor and Council want to focus on what the next half-century looks like for our community,” Rorie said earlier.
“Over the past several years, we have been addressing deferred maintenance of our facilities and infrastructure with two Facilities Bonds and the 2017 SPLOST. We have to make sure that Peachtree City as an entity can sustain the service levels our residents want as we continue to age,” Rorie said.
Two additional Retreat workshops are planned for Tuesday, April 2, and Tuesday, May 7, before the Council and staff begin working on the Fiscal Year 2020 budget in June. Discussion topics will be posted as they are finalized.
