The

so-called "Lenox Manifesto" is back on

the table.

Putting

limits on residential growth was proposed by

Peachtree City Mayor Bob Lenox two years ago,

stimulating a flurry of discussion among local

city and county leaders, but talk on the subject

died down about a year ago as legal barriers

became apparent.

But

with the federal government putting a halt to

transportation improvements in the area,

officials not only need to resurrect Lenox's

proposal that residential growth be limited to 4

percent a year, but also should talk about

expanding the discussion to include commercial

growth, said Fayetteville Mayor Mike Wheat during

a meeting of Fayette's FUTURE Committee Monday.

FUTURE

is a group of county and city officials working

to improve efficiency and cooperation among the

governments.

"The

federal government has taken over transportation

and road building for Fayette County," said

Wheat. "But we have 200,000 people from

south of Fayetteville coming through the city

every day. What can we do to limit growth on [Ga.

highways] 314 and 85 given the zoning that we

have?" he said.

"I

think we need to get the Manifesto, in some form,

cranked back up," he added.

"What

we want is some tangible, legally defensible way

of changing the way we're doing things now,"

Fayetteville city manager Michael Bryant added.

Dozens

of acres of developable land along the major

thoroughfares is already zoned for commercial

building, Wheat said, and as new stores and

shopping centers are built, traffic congestion

will increase with no remedy in sight, Wheat

said.

Peachtree

City's Lenox said that city is working to develop

an ordinance that requires developers to conduct

traffic impact studies for any new development,

and to include plans for road improvements that

will eliminate any negative impact. "If [the

development] is going to lower the performance of

that corridor, then you have to come up with a

mitigation plan," he said, "and prove

to us and our traffic engineers that you can put

in the development.

"If

you can't mitigate it, or won't," he added,

"we can't give you a building permit."

Residential

growth is not a big problem for Fayetteville,

Wheat said. Most of the city's traffic and other

problems are due to the thousands of people

visiting the city's shopping centers, he said.

But

residential growth all over the county does add

to that problem, suggested County Commission

Chairman Harold Bost. "Residential does have

to come into the equation," he said, adding

that he wants to see rapid action on some limits.

"Every

day that passes is a day that we have let an

opportunity pass us," he said.

But

limits on development inevitably lead to lawsuits

unless there are clear, legally defensible

criteria in place, FUTURE members said. The

federal moratorium on road building could provide

some legal ammunition, they agreed.

The

idea is not to stifle growth, said Lenox, just to

slow it down. "If we let people build houses

as fast as they want to, developers in this town

could sell 2,000 homes a year, easily," said

Lenox. "We're saying holding that down to

1,200 a year, about 4 percent, would double or

population in 18 years.

"If

we leave it on its own, it's going to happen in

nine or ten years," Lenox added.

He

suggested that laws requiring developers to

mitigate their impact on transportation, schools

and the environment could put some drag on the

growth.

Consensus

of the group was that staffs of the cities, the

Board of Education and the county should get

together and "create a plan for how this can

happen and who gets involved."

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