A Peachtree City tax rate of 6.043 mills got a 4-to-0 positive vote from City Council last week, which represents an increase of 17.59% more tax dollars to be collected from city property owners than last year.
You’ll see the increase in your tax bills due to arrive in the mail this fall.
Discussion of Councilman Frank Destadio’s motion to remove proposed 4-story mixed use buildings from the city’s new Comprehensive Plan was contentious, with Mayor Kim Learnard asking police to remove one woman from the audience for speaking out of order. The woman said she could leave without help and did. It marked a rare move by any mayor of the past two decades to force removal of an audience member.
Destadio wanted to remove a page in the plan showing multi-story apartments with retail uses on bottom floors. “When you look at the photographs on page 45, you clearly see downtown Woodstock, or Alpharetta, or Roswell or Milton,” Destadio said. “I strongly believe that we want our city as it is and if we need more low-income housing, we can do that without this ‘mix-use multi-story destination concept.’”
The city planner said a change like that would cause the state to reject the plan, which in turn would cost the city $2 million in state grants. Councilman Mike King asked Destadio if he would replace that lost funding.
Council agreed to change the maximum height for the mixed-use designation from four stories to three stories. It was a 3-to-1 vote in favor of the plan’s submission to the state.
King was on the other side of a 3-to-1 vote on another issue: the restoration of a Planning Commission’s ability to make a recorded vote for or against recommendation of proposed rezonings. The commission had stopped voting more than a year ago, believing the council had removed that power.
City staff got the green light to fashion an ordinance for mixed alcoholic drinks to go from restaurants and to allow so-called corkage rules for bring-your-own bottle to eating places.
Police Chief Janet Moon asked for a city ordinance to allow local penalties against massage parlors whose employees were changed with sexual services for pay. “They are hard to shut down,” Chief Moon said. She reported the department had conducted six undercover operations in recent years, some of which had resulted in individual arrests but no business shutdowns.
A citizen SPLOST committee presented their proposals for how the city should spend its share of the countywide sales tax vote coming up next spring, a chart of which is shown below.
I’m glad you agreed with me that these sick minded liberals with a poison attitude a hypocritical moral compass accompanied with a vile contempt for the constitution have taken over our beloved PTC.
We’ll done Stranger…maybe your not as WOKE as you seem.
Mr. Tucker,
I understand how you feel, plans are moving too fast, but they are not good ideas to begin with. I’ve emailed the City Council, other Fayette County leaders and the PTC City Manager. The City Manager is the only one who responded from PTC. The say all elections are local, and we voted in the wrong people. It’s just that simple. Councilmen King and Mayor Learnard won a popularity contest. Neither deserves their position. But, ignorant people elect ignorant officials. Please don’t accept that there was need to raise taxes. PTC has a surplus, and we’ll regret this move, especially when real estate price come back to
“normal”. One must ask, why do you want a 10% increase? You said we need it. What for??
Dragnet,
To your question, of course not. The mayor campaigned on trying to expand business development with “brew pubs” on Huddleston Rd, that would only increase the traffic, and probably increase a burden on law enforcement. More accidents, more DUI stops, and while the police are doing that, more traffic congestion.
Drdrakeremore,
Sadly, you’re seeing your comment unfold for all. The council and mayor do not want anyone to know what they are doing. We need to stand behind people like councilman Destadio, who advocates keeping decisions public. He is right, why should the council and mayors keep things from us? What are they hiding? Another tax increase?
DragNet
Sadly, I can confirm the answer is NO. I met with Mr. King to discuss this very item a couple of years ago. That conversation did not go well. He dismissed me as quickly, and frankly as he could. I thought we were meeting for a decent conversation, that was not the case. He blew me off as quickly and joined his friends for coffee, who were seated at the next table at Mimi’s restaurant.
We said !!!!
thanks Phil, I could have used some editing regarding my typos…
I’m glad you replied with a name. We can’t all hide under a skirt. I hope to start a recall petition soon. It’s hard to watch, but, the last few minutes of the 8-18-22 City council meeting shows it all. The audio becomes difficult as well, but it’s clear the Mayor and councilman King want to keep everything a secret. They have to go.
thanks Phil, I could have used some editing regarding my typos…
I’m glad you replied with a name. We can’t all hide under a skirt. I hope to start a recall petition soon. It’s hard to watch, but, the last few minutes of the 8-18-22 City council meeting shows it all. The audio becomes difficult as well, but it’s clear the Mayor and councilman King want to keep everything a secret. They have to go.
https://livestream.com/peachtreecity/councilmeeting/videos/23258173
Let’s build our future and safeguard it as well and while we can. We are seeing the cost for money that is greater than we have see in 15 years. While we are flush with homeowners’ equity we still have an opportunity to build on our Reserves. I also think we are going to need a well maintained Reserve for future maintenance, repair and replacement of our tangible capital assets beyond their engineered life cycle. We are still flush with homeowners’ equity, current taxation, and mostly paid for capital projects. However, money is tightening and I suspect it will continue tightening for the foreseeable future. At some point in time, our federal and state governments are going to restrict money for natural and unnatural disasters. They won’t have enough money and resources to cover all the needs, leaving smaller communities with less political voice to fend mostly for themselves. A good example is the recent tornado destruction in Coweta County. Even with emergency declarations, not everything in Coweta County has returned to normal. The same can be said for Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
Have you watched the video of the evening council meeting on 8-18-22? It’s available on the PTC web site. Really enjoyed and agreed with speed bump comments about ex city manager Jon Rorie from a concerned citizen. Time stamped at 1:22:00
And there you have it. Armed robberies, shootings, burglaries, violent assaults and now higher taxes. Welcome to Atlanta’s new inner city, Peachtree City.
We thank the countries Liberal policies now flourishing here and now controlling another inner city.
Now a word above and below from the Liberals living here in PTC.
How right you are PTC Resident. Those no good liberals send our country into budget deficits by bloating the budget of the military and giving shiftless farmers subsidies NOT to grow crops.
And heir lawlessness is beyond the pale. Rioting at the U.S. Capitol, violently disrupting Congress, threatening to assassinate the Vice President and members of Congress. On top of that, they steal documents from the U.S Archives and refuse to return them. And don’t forget their loud chants to “Defund the F.B.I.”
Welcome to post-law-and-order America. We could make our country great again if we could only get rid of those pesky liberals.
1. The City’s new Comprehensive Plan is moving too fast for me. I’ve been studying and comparing the previous plans to validate my thoughts on it, but I’m nowhere up to speed to render a valid opinion, other than it’s moving too quickly. I don’t understand a State grant requiring 4-story mixed use buildings in our Comprehensive Plan. Can we get a “fact check” on that?
2. As for the budget, I accept the overall tax increase; nearly all costs are increasing. However, I do want to increase our City’s Reserve 10 or more percent. I think we’ll need it.
Kim and the City Council ought to just go ahead and close their meetings to the general riff-raff. Clearly, they would rather not be bothered with the thoughts of folks who live here.
Any part of these taxes to be dedicated to remediate congestion at 54/74?
How a bout creating a good samaratian law and start ticking them do-gooders who let all them cheaters cut in line.