The Peachtree City Council

recently renewed a moratorium on all annexations. But the

council members left the door open to consider annexing

nearly 1,000 acres north of Ga. Highway 54 and west of

Ga. Highway 74.

Let's talk in Part I about

the West Village, that lingering figment of planners' and

developers' imaginations.

The concept is a fairly

recent one, despite what you may hear from those same

planners and developers.

Way back in the 1970s,

there were some ambitious drawings that showed a Lake

McIntosh on the Fayette-Coweta border, formed by damming

Line Creek in the vicinity of the uninhabited area west

of Falcon Field. It was south of Ga. Highway 54, and

would have included some fancy subdivisions, courtesy of

then-Peachtree City Development Corp. and its patron,

landowner Bessemer Securities (and later, The Equitable

Life Assurance Society of the U.S.).

Those drawings I have

seen with my own two peepers, having dwelled nearby

since early 1977. Lake Mac disappeared under intercounty

squabbling and Lake Kedron on Flat Creek was its eventual

replacement.

The point is - the

"Village" was well south of what is now being

discussed as the newest and last of Peachtree City's

village developments. Now there's squabbling over what is

to be built on land bordering Hwy. 54, long zoned

commercial, long before there was ever a Planterra Ridge.

I myself bought a home in a

quiet neighborhood, filled with trees, next to forests

and cow pastures. That vista has changed - now I

awake to the rumbling of earth-moving equipment and

road-building machines, converting what was once a forest

to 399 apartments and 160 or so small homes.

Needless to say, I am

less than thrilled by the forest being replaced with

apartment parking lots. But, it's not my land, and it was

zoned for that before I ever moved in, 22 years ago.

Can't stop that development

of land zoned commercial for a quarter century. It's

what's being talked about just north of that area that

I'm most concerned about - the new West

Village.

First, a few definitions.

Annexing: that's when a

city takes into its incorporated boundaries land that was

in the unincorporated county. Annexing, by the way, is

completely optional. No city ever is legally bound to

approve annexation requests, unlike rezoning.

Density: what you get when

people occupy an area. Some folks like high density,

others prefer low density. Peachtree City, for the most

part, is - in my judgment - medium to high

density: about two to four dwelling units per acre on

average

(divide the city's area of

15,000 acres by its population of about 33,000, and leave

out green belts, commercial and industrial areas).

I would consider low

density as what mostly prevails in the unincorporated

county - usually less than one house per acre, and

often one house per two acres or more.

What developers want: high

density and sewer connections.

What annexing offers: high

density and sewer connections.

Why sewer? Because in the

unincorporated county, residents must pay for and

maintain viable septic tank drainage fields, usually

requiring more than a half-acre of land per house. That

limits the number of homes that can be built on a given

plot of land. That decreases return on the developers'

investment.

City sewer service opens up

vastly greater numbers of units per acre. That means more

money. That's why developers want to be annexed into

cities.

If you prefer greater

numbers of people on the city's west side - by a

factor of three- to fivefold - you should support

Peachtree City's annexing the nearly 1,000 acres now in

the unincorporated county. Even at the extremely unlikely

lowest city density, that would add from 2,000 to 3,000

more folks to our population. Add a few apartments, or

townhouses, and the numbers could swell above 5,000

- and nearly that many more automobiles. And that's

before any commercial development.

The new apartments

and small homes under construction adjacent to Wynnmeade

will add about 1,200 people and nearly that many cars to

the west side's already bulging traffic count.

How many would likely be

built under its current county zoning? Look at what's

there now. The Line Creek wetlands drastically limit

septic tank developments. Probably the maximum number of

homes that would be allowed under the most dense county

zoning would be under 400 homes - maybe not even

half that many.

Which would you rather have

- under 400 homes in the county or 1,500 to 3,000

dwelling units or more inside Peachtree City?

But, some ask, what about

Tyrone? What if Tyrone annexes that area?

In Part II, I'll talk about

the concept of "protection by annexation."

[Cal

Beverly is editor and publisher of The Citizen and a

22-year resident of Wynnmeade, one of the city's oldest

subdivisions.