Peachtree City wants the Atlanta Regional Commission to give the city $160,000 to add to an already budgeted $32,000 to draw up details to redevelop the central part of the city around City Hall and the library.
Map above shows area included in the study. Graphic/Peachtree City Planning Department.
The City Council will vote on the resolution seeking the funding at its meeting Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
“If awarded, the funds will be used toward the preparation of the City Centre Redevelopment Plan,” Mayor Vanessa Fleisch wrote to the ARC. “The study area is located between the intersection of two regional corridors to the west, State Route 54 and State Route 74, and Lake Peachtree to the east.”
“It is our intent to create a walkable, vibrant mixed-use village for people of all ages and abilities through the redevelopment of aging retail strip centers and under-utilized public property,” Fleisch wrote.
“Through the public planning process facilitated by the grant, we will address issues already identified by our citizens in the 2017 Comprehensive Plan, which was completed with the assistance of ARC staff,” Fleisch wrote.
“These include the need for a diversity of housing types, the need to address traffic impacts of the SR54/SR74 intersection, the desire to protect our 100+ miles of multi-use paths, and the desire to protect water quality of our lakes,” the mayor wrote. “We are confident that a fully-funded grant application will result in an actionable plan that the city is committed to achieving.”
The city indicated it intends to move the resulting plan through to completion. “As further indication of the city’s commitment to the project, City Council has already expended funds in pre-planning efforts and budgeted funds for anticipated implementation steps. Some of these efforts include developing a Conceptual Vision plan, a Corridor Study for SR 54 East, budgeting for the matching funds for this grant, and budgeting for the complete overhaul of our Zoning and Land Development ordinances,” Fleisch wrote to the ARC.
City staff in a memo to council said the $160,000 grant, along with money already budgeted by the city, will “facilitate a planning project that will establish a vibrant, walkable village tentatively called the ‘City Centre.’”
The money will be used for:
• Facilitation of a robust public participation plan (estimated 28 percent of budget)
• Market study for land use programming (13 percent)
• Land use, parking, and multi-modal plan (31 percent)
• Stormwater pond and green infrastructure design and maintenance guidelines (15 percent)
• Architectural guidelines (13 percent).
The memo says, “Staff has identified the proposed planning study area as shown in [the map]. It includes the area studied last year in the Conceptual Redevelopment Potential, as well as the SR 54/SR 74 intersection and property on the north side of SR 54. These are areas that are most likely to be impacted by the GDOT Displaced Left Turn Lane project, set to go under construction in 2021. They are also part of the oldest village in Peachtree City, Aberdeen Village.”
The council is scheduled to vote on the resolution asking for the funds Thursday night.
An additional problem is, “…whine! whine! We can’t fix the 74/85 problem; those are State routes. We can’t control traffic from Coweta Co, we’re Fayette! whine! whine!…”
Think outside the box
Well the problem is fixable. It is more expensive but if we rejected the short term solution and demanded a flyover for a long term fix we would have more pain in the short term but a more sustainable community thereafter. Too many people are willing to settle for a bandaid.
Oh, please no. What is the craze for density, congestion and chaos? If we wanted to live in an ant hill we would have moved to Atlanta or other urban center. It is time to recognize the dangers of a real estate agent as mayor. I hope our council will vote NO!
The problem is that the city council doesn’t seem to see the need to expand the city limits, so the only way to “grow” the city is to increase density.
The real problem is nobody asked if it is appropriate to grow the city. Maybe, just maybe, someone should plan for sustainability instead?
Or perhaps a willingness to refuse to convert non-residential zoning into residential and focus on bringing real business development into our city would be helpful. But that would offend our Realtor Mayor.
Expanding the city boundaries isn’t a perfect solution. Note the west side village. We seem to be unable to say no to developers.