10 responses to “OPINION: Peachtree City school zones face big changes to accommodate candidates’ ‘workforce housing’ plans”

1. 

   annoyedvet101

   October 28, 2023

   I appreciate the reasonable take here but four main issues in my view.

   1) Mixed used does not imply and is not synonymous with apartments. It means residential and commercial on the same lot. The council has made clear there are no apartments planned and there is no reason to believe that will change. I’m not on Facebook so not sure what context I’m missing, but think I follow. I don’t think the mayor was speaking for the candidates, but still, no one is saying they support apartments. Yes, Moore supports mixed use but that does not mean apartments. Any new apartments have to go to council, and even with Moore/Painter I don’t see them getting approved. PTC citizens have a history of being vocal on this issue and over the last 20 years council has listened.

   2) The implication that Moore/Painter are developer backed is not supported by facts. PTC is an urban city by any definition, suburb sure, but root urban. It has been by the US definition since it had more than 2k residents, or since 30k by the Japan one, one of the densest countries in the world. This implication it is the developers who solely want some mixed use and not other residents who simply have different views is disingenuous. Cities and their residents grow and change and it’s not always do people can make money, though they do, that’s just how our economy works.

   3) Traffic will get worse. Period. Full stop. We cannot control growth outside of PTC, and that growth will cause traffic. The idea a few hundred homes will materially affect traffic is not logical. All the thousands of homes going into neighboring cities is the fundamental driver of our traffic woes. We need to work with the state on this.

   4) The schools cant handle it is just another straw man argument, with respect to the impact of a few hundred homes. Not everyone has kids and definitely not of the same age. I believe in our FCBOE and the councils ability to plan for this before approving any new homes. If we were talking about adding 1k plus homes per year for multiple years, this would be a valid concern. There just isn’t enough land in the city limits or available to annex AND get refined for this to be a valid concern right now. Maybe this changes in the future, but we can’t “what about” ourselves into total inaction on any possible redevelopment. Look at what they are charging for homes in Trilith, our property values will be fine.

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   1. 

      neilsullivan

      October 29, 2023

      Thanks for looking at this. I see your points but

      1 ) Call stacked housing what you want. Apartments, Condos, townhomes, verticle stack housing…. Its still many on the same piece of land. The mayor did say no candidate supported … Candidate Moore disagreed in her email. Plain as day.
      2 ) See Steve Brown’s article. Moore and Painter received sizable donations from an executive at Pace / Lynch and from and LLC.
      3 ) Agreeish. We are at the mercy of apartment mad Fayetteville and growth and Coweta. We are a crossroad at best, Dar Thompson had it right when he said we needed to open the TDK connector which would do a lot more good than Painter’s gate at Planterra. However, this would drive its own traffic nightmare and facilitate more growth in Coweta.
      4 ) Trillith is the nightmare scenario. Have you seen how much stacked housing went up there? Veterans and Sandy Creek Road can handle it. Where does that work in PTC? But McIntosh is full and has been. any sizable growth will force a redistricting. A new school would have 600k – 1M in fixed costs for administartion and support staff, so the game is to spread out the costs among the existing buildings as long as possible.

      The BOE is already strapped and maximizing class size to save $. Sandy Creek has room, my wife teaches there.

      You keep saying 100 per year like you know something. What are you being told. Its unlikely true only because the economics say build everything now not in stages. We need to plan this out and think it through now so we can have a plan.

      A good example of failure to plan is the Green T by racetrack approved by one of Candidate Moore’s partners on Plan for PTC. Now the turn lane to RaceTrack / Chik Fil A overflows and blocks one lane of traffic and cars try to dive into the other lane.

      Look up “Project Based Rental Assistance or PBRA” Its likely the federal money they keep talking about. This is a program under Section 8 of the HUD act which provides rental assistance below a certain income. Before you get excited, Im betting there would be a lottery. The feds don’t give you money to make PTC nicer without strings.

      I have appreciated these exchanges where we can disagree without being disagreeable. I hope thigs work out for you.

      Take Care

      n

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2. 

   Gman

   October 24, 2023

   This is a good article and candidates Moore and Painter need to clearly state their positions on whether they support more new apartments or other stacked housing developments in the Village centers. I oppose it as I think do most PTC citizens.

   Our Mayor is also on record as opposing it and has had to fight a misinformation campaign from a current council member. I admit that I’d been sucked into some of this misinformation. That council member should own up to any misinformation provided regarding the Mayor’s position. Note, I voted for that council member but I do not support misinformation or opinions that are not based on facts.We need civil dialogue, not unfounded accusations.

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   1. 

      neilsullivan

      October 24, 2023

      Hi Gman

      I saw the mayor’s video. I would stay away from the word “misinformation” as it first appeared in these conversations in candidate Moore’s refusal to answer pretty basic questions. Since then, if you are nor for Painter/Moore Learnard, its seems to be misinformation.

      You will note above I reference Wagner’s letter and Moore’s email as a basis for my analysis. I agree there are no CURRENT proposals, but Planner Wagner tells us the plan is updated every 5 years. So there is no fire per se, but there is smoke,

      As I noted above, its kinda weird that there is chatter on various Facebook groups about needing multifamily housing in PTC . Its no coincidence that each poster also supports the ticket. The Mayor’s tireless efforts on their behalf raises more alarm atleast for me. Why doesnt the ticket speak from themselves?

      Admittedly, I have become wary about public leaders since the Booth ESPLOST debacle. But even President Reagan says trust but verify. The more words the bigger the smoke. No means no.

      Take Care

      n

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      1. 

         Gman

         October 24, 2023

         Thanks Neil. It’s obvious that there is bad relations between Kim and Clint. In Clint’s endorsement of Suzanne Brown he indicated that ‘there were proposed plans to urbanize our city with with mixed use or apartment complexes, do away with the Tennis Center and other local parks to make way for new multi family complexes in the controversial LCI plan’. I think that that incensed Kim because she said none of that was true as to actual proposals and was misinformation. Hence her private email to Clint severely chastising him which ended up published in the Citizen. And later the video on YouTube which was certainly a better look.

         You are dead right though that efforts will continue by candidates, developers, land owners, political action groups and some citizens to bring more apartments and urbanization to Peachtree City and we need to keep electing council members who oppose it in my opinion. I appreciate your comments.

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         1. 

            My.02

            October 26, 2023

            Gman – I agree with you on what probably set the mayor off to write her email to Councilman Holland, but there WAS a proposal to use city property for mixed use development in the Livable Centers Initiative (LCI).

            Holland referred to the LCI in his endorsement of Suzanne Brown. He wrote: “She also contested the attempts at doing away with the Tennis Center and other local parks to make way for new multi-family complexes in the controversial Livable Centers Initiative plan.” https://thecitizen.com/2023/10/17/letter-councilman-holland-endorses-suzanne-brown-for-peachtree-city-council-post-2/

            In 2020, the PTC’s Livable Centers Initiative had a plan to convert the Tennis Center (and Drake Field) to multi-family buildings / apartments. See (https://thecitizen.com/2020/11/01/lci-meeting-insult-to-peachtree-city-residents/) The mayor does not contradict Holland on this point, only pointing out that the LCI died three years ago.

            I summarized a number of similar oddities in the mayor’s letter in the Comments here (https://thecitizen.com/2023/10/20/mayor-kim-learnard-lays-down-the-law-to-councilman-holland/)

            The mayor directed some sharp words at Holland, but from what I see, what Holland wrote was factual or clearly his opinion.

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            1. 

               Gman

               October 29, 2023

               Thanks. I reread Clint’s endorsement of Ms Brown and I believe your analysis is correct. He did not mention or accuse Kim, only endorsed Suzanne. So thanks for pointing that out to me. With Kim’s fiery email to Clint one has to assume they have a bad working relationship.

3. 

   Deadeye

   October 23, 2023

   I’m sure Slick Vic and Tamara would work with developers for apartments at the old KMart location. A project that size would stand a good chance to be financed through Wells Fargo, Slick Vic’s employer. Follow the money!

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   1. 

      vics1966

      October 23, 2023

      Hi Deadeye, if you watch mayor Learnard on YouTube make it clear that she and city council will follow the master plan and that includes NO apartments…plus her calling out Holland over these rumors…I don’t follow where all of this comes from.
      Have I missed something?

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4. 

   vics1966

   October 23, 2023

   The voters should hear directly from Moore and Painter where they stand on any further multifamily development…the mayor is totally clear about following our PTC master plan and that included no new apartments…period.

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