The West

Village Annexation Task Force began to dig deeper in its

study of the possible annexation at a special meeting

Wednesday evening.

Some task

force members questioned whether the northern parcel of

the property should be annexed at all. Todd Strickland

suggested the annexation could be phased in, with the

southernmost portion annexed first.

But Debbie

Condon said this might be the city's only chance to

"unify" the area and develop it all at one

time.

Strickland

said he thought the task force had been quick to leave

out office space, which could be used to offset the

number of residences that would be developed on the land.

"There's

an awful lot of single-family housing, and that's

something we need to look at," he said.

Later in

the meeting, other uses for the land were suggested,

including a par-3 public golf course, a cemetery and

horse farms.

Dan Fields

of John Wieland Homes said he thought there wasn't a

market for a par-3 course in the area. He added that the

land owner may not sell the land for a course.

Mayor Bob

Lenox said the city tried to develop the Glenloch area

with land parcels that included a central stable area for

horses, but the idea didn't take off. "Now, it's a

soccer field," he said.

Task force

member Jim Steinbach said he didn't think the city should

give developers more homes on the property than the

county approved. He agreed with Strickland that the task

force needs to change its focus.

"We

need to come up with the best options we have and leave

some room for negotiations (with developers),"

Steinbach said. "If the developers say we're asking

for too much, we'll say, `Sorry, guys, but you can't put

the Peachtree City logo on it.'"

Steinbach

said annexing the land into Peachtree City benefitted the

developers since they could sell land for higher prices.

Fields

pointed out that the infrastructure for the West Village

would cost millions of dollars. The developers want to

have more residential units in the area to recoup those

costs, he said.

Task force

member John Williams pointed out that if the land is

developed as part of the county, the residents there

would still use Peachtree City services. By annexing the

land into the city, those residents would pay for city

services in taxes and impact fees, he said.

It was

estimated that if the property remains a part of the

county, there will be approximately 1,500 people living

there. But if the property is annexed into the city like

the developers propose, that population would hit 4,350.

Fields said

the developers had already shrunk their original plans

for 2,200 residential lots in the area. That number is

now down to 1,457 units, he said, adding indications that

the developers couldn't reduce that number further.

After the

meeting, Fields said the various infrastructure needed

for the West Village area was approximately $7 million, a

figure that was compiled three years ago.

During the

meeting, Strickland questioned whether it was appropriate

for the developers to speak with city planners about the

West Village Area instead of bringing that information

before the entire task force. But that issue wasn't

touched on by the group during the rest of Wednesday's

meeting.

The task

force also discussed environmental concerns about the

possible annexation. Dennis Chase of the Line Creek

Association said if too much water is taken out of the

creek, it could put the Water and Sewer Authority in

violation of guidelines for the treated sewage it

discharges back into the creek downstream.

Williams,

who sits on WASA, said the sewer system will be able to

handle additional capacity through land application

methods. That calls for treated sewage to be spread on

golf courses and other land as fertilizer, instead of

discharging it back into Line Creek, Williams explained.

"You

should rely on the sewage system to be available,"

Williams said.

Chase said

the state prefers to see land application used by sewage

systems, and it's "preferable" to sending more

treated wastewater downstream.

Chase

supported using sewer systems over individual septic

systems. But if the land remains in the county, it

becomes more likely the homes would be on septic systems.

Steinbach

also said he was concerned about the environmental

condition of the Peach Pit landfill property. He wanted

more tests to be performed "before we start moving

folks in there."

"My

concern is that we might end up a covey of rental homes

in that area," Steinbach said.