Dear Citizens of Peachtree City, I have ignored the mistruths about Plan for PTC for too long and wanted to share some relevant facts.
Plan for PTC is an Independent Committee. It is NOT a PAC.
Plan for PTC has never contributed money to a candidate.
Plan for PTC has never supported a specific candidate until one of our founding members decided to run for City Council in August of 2023. At that point, we decided to show our support publicly and to dissolve Plan for PTC.
Plan for PTC began as a grassroots effort in the spring of 2021. We first engaged an attorney about forming an official committee in April of that year. The process took several months, and the Articles of Incorporation were filed on August 5, 2021, which coincidentally, was several days after the Committee was supposedly “outed” online.
Plan for PTC is not “secret.” The committee was formed by a group of women who have raised and are raising their children in this incredible place we call home and who found some alarming data:
• Fayette County is aging at an unusual rate. According to the US Census Bureau, the percentage of the population 65+ grew from 12.9% in 2010 to 19.5% in 2021. One of the many reasons this is compelling is because our citizens can opt out of contributing tax dollars to our school system at age 62.
• Many of our large corporate citizens were leasing office space in Midtown because they were having trouble hiring talent to work in Peachtree City. Please keep in mind, this was before Covid and the work from home revolution.
• Less than 3,000 people voted for the two open city council posts in 2019.
We found this information very concerning and wanted to raise awareness and get other citizens engaged. Our mission was to reach as many people as possible. We wanted to be a source of unbiased information and ultimately impact voter participation.
During the 2021 election cycle, we shared information about all the candidates and hosted two candidate forums. I am very proud of the work that we did, but most importantly, we never had anything to hide. The Plan for PTC Facebook page is evidence that the group was sharing information and encouraging citizens to participate. The mission was simple, and it was never nefarious.
Plan for PTC does not support a “pro-stacked-multi-family housing complex.” At no point during the formation of Plan for PTC, or in any of their communications after that, did the group express that they were “devoted to building densely stacked apartment complexes across the city.” None of the founding members of Plan for PTC believe that our town needs more apartments. Any misguided attempt to prove otherwise is simply fiction.
On a more personal note (since I have been personally libeled), I am not a real estate developer. I am a real estate broker and an Independent Contractor. I represent businesses in buying, selling or leasing real estate. I actually help fill the vacant retail spaces that our citizens are so concerned about. My profession is not a nefarious one, and I do not stand to receive financial gain from building apartments in our town.
I genuinely love this community. I was born and raised in Fayette County, and I chose to move to Peachtree City over 20 years ago. That was indeed one of the best decisions of my lifetime. I am very passionate about the future of this community, and that is why I started Plan for PTC.
It had absolutely nothing to do with potential financial gain and everything to do with our exceptional schools, our incredibly unique path system, our top-notch public services, and protecting all the incredible things about Peachtree City for generations to come.
I urge anyone with questions to please contact me directly. I am happy to share all the Plan for PTC financial records and openly discuss any concerns without citing my own opinion pieces as evidence.
Lastly, local elections are vitally important. Please get out and vote!
Emily Winkle
ewinkle@comcast.net
Peachtree City, Ga.
You can say all you want but Plan for PTC has started and fought some ridiculous battles here in town. No street parking? other silly rules when we already have a strict community? No thanks. There’s a reason they deleted so much off their website when this election began but use thewaybackmachine and you can see many of their old platforms and things they advocated for. And thats only what was shared publicly….
Emily – taking you at your word about the origins of Plan for PTC, your background, and your desire for a better PTC. I still have some questions.
Were these three bullet points of “alarming data” the main reasons / goals of Plan for PTC?
Peachtree City’s 65+ population is 18.6% of the PTC total (vs your number of 20.1% for Fayette), and in PTC those under 18 are 25% vs Fayette County’s 22.4% of the total (2020 Census Data). If too many older folks are a problem to you, at least PTC is keeping the county average lower.
Is Plan for PTC advocating to rescind the 62+ county school tax break? What are the “many (other) reasons” to be alarmed at the number of 65+ in our community?
It would be tough to list a company in the US that hasn’t struggled to attract and retain talent in the last 5 years. Leasing in Midtown before 2020 made sense if a company was looking for 20-somethings for IT jobs, but post-Covid work from home trends make location less of an issue for all jobs that don’t require a worker to be on site.
Is this still a burning issue to Plan for PTC, and if so, what is your solution for this?
I am with you on getting people out to vote. Let’s hope they vote with full knowledge of candidates’ goals for PTC.
Annoyed – “the reality of the factors driving purchasing/leasing decisions for business in that market simply remove PTC from consideration 99% of the time.” Do you have a source for this, or did you just make it up? What are the factors for business decisions that eliminate PTC, and what should we do about it?
Thanks Emily for your information. I hope you stay involved here as their are a fair amount of citizens engaged.
First, 65+ demo, you are right, but how much did Cresswind contribute to that. Not saying its bad, but its more property “put to sleep” with the senior exemption, impacting our schools. That’s the challenge with stacked multi-family or other dense housing in Fayette County in general and PTC in particular. Multi – fam adds the kiddos at a dipropionate rate to tax dollars.
That’s the other dimension to the “affordable” element of the housing discussion. Fayetteville has built a fair amount of stacked multifam in Trillith and by the “bus depot”. The schools in those areas are starting to qualify for Federal funding under Title 1 for free and reduced lunches drive by income. At the same time, our system is challenged financially and increasing class size.
Our friend “annoyed” below has advocated for “housing for the next generation” which is a fine aspiration, but at what point do we discusss what where and how much? Annoyed as talked about “100 a year …” So there seems to be discussions as these do not seem to be random thoughts.
Annoyed if you look back in time. I actually supported Dar Thompson for Mayor who advocated for annexing Fisher Crossing (Sam’s club, etc.) and running the cart paths down there. Talk about revenue. He is for multi-use, but had a plan. The minute he mentioned extending TDK (Crosstown) to Coweta he was done. Sadly that extension would do Biblically more for the Planterra / 54&74 situation than Painter’s gate in my opinion.
Im not saying for no’s sake, but rather there is no plan. Moore and to a lesser degree Painter have not provided a reason to vote FOR them but rather their surrogates have tried to besmirch the candidates who are transparent,