Council votes to increase your property taxes, while delaying vote on short-term rental rules for Peachtree City

Your taxes in Peachtree City are about to go up because of the increased value of your properties, as the City Council voted Oct. 17 to set the tax rate at 5.983 mills.

That represents about $62 more taxes a year on a house valued at $500,000, according to Kelly Bush, assistant director of financial services.

That includes a rate rollback of 0.06 mills from the previous rate of 6.043 mills, Bush told the council in an Oct. 10 special called meeting. A full rollback would have cost the city $1.1 million, Director Paul Salvatore said.

The new 2025 Fiscal Year General Fund budget tops out at $56.8 million in expenditures, with taxes accounting for $45.7 million of that total. The remainder comes from things like fees, fines and investment income.

The city could not afford to cut taxes further, City Manager Justin Strickland said, “unless they evaluated the budget to decide what to cut [in services].”

First-ever rules governing short-term rentals of private homes in the city were postponed again last week. Mayor Kim Learnard said she wanted “less punitive” rules that would allow owners of 135 homes total to rent rooms in their homes over services like Airbnb.

Among the opponents of the proposed ordinance was the president of the Fayette County Board of Realtors, who that the rules may violate state law.

Meanwhile, council members remained steadfastly silent about their justification for closing off a cart path entrance into the Kedron Hills subdivision from neighboring Tyrone.

Here’s what some citizens told the council in the past few weeks during public comment time;

Lynne Lasher asked Council to look beyond what she called bullying behavior by the County Commissioners and do what was best for the Fayette County Animal Shelter and the animals it housed. She also said she did not understand why the Mayor of Tyrone refused Peachtree City’s offer to build a cart path to connect Tyrone and Peachtree City and noted that the County Commission had discussed withholding funds from Peachtree City.

Evan Huelfer of Tyrone spoke on the closing of Crabapple Lane, saying 19 Kedron Hills residents had reached out to them to say they were against the blocking of the road to golf carts. He read from a letter written by one of them that said golf cart traffic had always been a minor issue. The letter went on to say it smacked of elitism to shut out the traffic from Tyrone.

Holly Huelfer said she had created a petition signed by more than 600 people who wanted the gate to Kedron Hills re-opened for golf carts. She read comments from some of the 253 Peachtree City residents that signed and said her group would be doing that in future meetings, starting with the 19 from Kedron Hills. One stated that a single egress and ingress was impractical, while another said the closure meant they had to drive through the entire neighborhood, creating more traffic.

Jeff Angelo continued. One Kedron Hills commenter mentioned the annual fee Tyrone residents paid to use the paths to get to Peachtree City businesses and suggested Peachtree City should have used the money spent on the wall to fix the cart paths. Another Peachtree City resident asked why cart access from Highgrove on the south side was not blocked.

Other commenters, Kris Beardsley reported, felt only a few well-to-do homeowners with ties to City Council had the power to shut down a cart path. Another mentioned that driving on the roads was dangerous, and another said they understood car traffic would be worrisome, but carts posed no problems.

McKay Moore suggested opening the road and adding speed bumps. He also mentioned that he grew up in this area and had friends in all parts of the county, so connectivity was vital.

Darcy Beardsley said the path connectivity was a big part of why they chose to continue to live in Peachtree City.

Jill Clark Gardner told Holland she had been one of his most solid supporters and was baffled as to why he would support this closure. She mentioned the Huelfers’ daughter, who had to get out of the golf cart and unlock the gate, then repeat the process in order to get to her job in Peachtree City. She also remarked that some people had mentioned changing demographics in the Tyrone area as a reason for the closure, but said she hoped that was not a factor.

Briana Karettis said she hoped Council would act soon to allow residents to keep chickens on their property. She felt it would be good for her son and that chickens caused no harm in a neighborhood.

Lois Bredemeier thought the proposed short-term rental (STR) ordinance violated privacy and information-gathering laws and said it was being discussed in response to a unique situation in Smokerise that was not STR-related.

Rebecca Thomas, who rented out a suite in her home as an STR, pointed out that the off-street parking requirement in the proposed ordinance only applied to STRs, not private homes. She also believed the cost of the permits was too high.

Eric Shafro asked Council to consider allowing the use of e-watercraft on Lake Peachtree and to remove the horsepower cap and substitute speed limits in the proposed ordinance.

Blake Hayes spoke about the plans for Huddleston Road and SR 74 and that there was no provision for right turns out of Best Buy. He said the plans were not in compliance with Georgia law, and the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) wanted a yield sign and a separate turn lane with an island. He said GDOT had a history of problems with yield signs and hoped the City would work with GDOT to fix them.

The proposed STR ordinance was not reasonable, rational, or logical, Chris Anderson remarked. He said it would not prevent a situation like in Smokerise but would overly control legitimate STRs and cause harm to the community and business owners.

Iris Owens, president of the Fayette County Board of Realtors, stated that the STR ordinance would infringe on private property rights. It also was asking for more information than other business owners were required to give when getting a permit. She said only licensed Realtors had the right to publicize information about someone’s home.