Well, the

other giant shoe just dropped with a thud in Peachtree

City - plans to annex the empty west side of

Peachtree City and stuff 5,000 more people into a traffic

corridor already groaning with overgrowth.

A group of large-tract

property owners has spent some money and come up with a

colorful blueprint to put more than 1,600 added housing

units on 900 acres now home to pine trees, wetlands and

redbirds.

The group - which

includes Pathway Communities, the former Peachtree City

Development Corp. - is asking the Peachtree City

Council to unzip its annexation moratorium so city staff

can join in the developing fun.

Mayor Bob Lenox and council

member Bob Brooks have already sent big signals they look

forward to annexing nearly another 1,000 acres into the

city's already developed 15,000-plus acres.

With the council-approved

shoehorning of more than 200 tiny-lot houses and 299

apartments into the existing west side of the city, the

added population explosion could exceed 6,000 new

residents into the city's northwest quadrant.

This column becomes, then,

Part 2 of my earlier column on reasons why citizens

should be wary of annexation.

Full disclosure: I live in

Wynnmeade subdivision, next to the planned apartments and

south of the forested unincorporated area being targeted

for inclusion into the city.

To recap my earlier column,

developers want annexation into a city almost exclusively

for one reason: more money.

They want access to at

least two things a city automatically provides: Higher

density zoning and sewer service to facilitate that

higher density housing.

Outside the city, the

developer faces the melancholy prospect of septic tanks

on larger lots. That cuts back the number of residential

lots the development can be carved into, and thus lowers

the profit potential of the project.

Is higher density a good

thing, a neutral thing or a bad thing?

Depends on your

perspective. One thing for sure: higher residential

density brings worsened traffic and the sudden need for

more government services and added school classrooms.

Remember that cities have

no legal obligation whatsoever to annex new land. No

obligation even to listen to annexation pleas. They can

tell developers to go farm it.

So why would any city even

entertain the idea of annexing new territory?

Simple: money and power.

Some city officials

salivate at the prospect of added tax revenue, although

residential development almost never pays in taxes what

it costs in taxes for services. It does, however, build

bureaucracy - more government clerks needed to send

out more tax bills, more cops and fire fighters needed to

serve the added population, and on and on.

That's like steak to a

dedicated bureaucrat.

Some politicians like being

in charge of bigger populations. Mayor of 50,000 sounds

better than mayor of 30,000 - right?

That's just human nature.

One particular politician I remember felt that service to

his local school board didn't fully tap his talents. He

went on to be president.

Nothing wrong with that.

But you need to recognize agendas that don't appear in

the official records.

One city that grew way

beyond its historic circle is Fayetteville. There was a

dark side to the sudden growth in the mid-1980s, and that

got a whole group of city council members thrown out and

replaced by a reform bunch, led by Mike Wheat, later

mayor.

That group a few years

later undertook its own annexation blizzard, resulting in

what is now a new hospital and a major retail center

known as the Pavilion.

In most cases, the

developers wanted the city sewer and more favorable

zoning and the city wanted more taxes.

Tyrone has had its own case

of annexation fever, expanding its north borders nearly

to the Fulton County line. Unofficial reason: bigger

town, more taxes.

Always, the official reason

will be something like this: We want to protect our

borders.

Well, horsefeathers.

The concept of defensive

annexation is ludicrous in today's Fayette County.

In the name of

"protecting our borders," you get way more

people, way more traffic and way more need for

high-priced, usually duplicated government services, and

way more taxes out of your wallet.

Consider the West Village.

Currently, the land in the unincorporated county is

nearly undevelopable. Much of it lies in the Line Creek

watershed area, making it unbuildable.

It has no access to sewer

service, thus requiring larger lots with extensive septic

drainage fields in soils that are likely to cause septic

failures.

Some of it is zoned light

industrial along the CSX railroad tracks, but no industry

wants that land. The rails are a barrier, probably

requiring an expensive bridge. And there's no sewer,

remember?

Additionally, without that

bridge over the rails, the land is nearly inaccessible

- no roads, no connections across Line Creek into

Coweta County.

Without city zoning and

city sewer, that land will likely sit there, in pine

trees and redbirds.

County zoning would require

larger lots than Peachtree City's zoning. And the county

would have responsibility for policing it, paving the

roads, putting out the fires, etc. And there's still no

sewer, remember?

What about that ogre to the

north - Tyrone? Well, come on. Tyrone has done a

pretty good job with its own zoning. So what if the

frustrated developers plead for annexation into Tyrone?

Still no sewer, remember? Tyrone is mostly unsewered, and

probably ought to stay that way.

No sewer means bigger lots,

big drainage fields, unusable land, lower density than in

Peachtree City.

So much for

"protecting our borders." It's just a hot-air

smokescreen to cover the real reasons for annexation:

more money, more power.

We city folks ought to be

glad there's some county left as undeveloped, low-density

land that cities haven't gobbled up yet. And we ought to

tell our local elected officials: leave it alone!