Nothing screams

"STOP!" like a moratorium.

And if incoming

Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown has his way, the City Council will back

his request for a 90-day moratorium on a host of development activities,

including site plan approvals, subdivision plat approvals, landscape plan

approvals and applications for rezoning and annexation.

The concept

is on the agenda for Brown's first council meeting, slated for Thursday,

Jan. 3.

Brown said

he thinks the city needs the three months to put the finishing touches

on the update of its comprehensive land use plan, a project the Peachtree

City Planning Commission has been working on for over a year. He also

added that the idea had the support of city staff and City Attorney Rick

Lindsey.

Specifically,

Brown wants to focus on a few key areas, including:

Refining the

city's land use ordinances.

Insuring that

new federal and state mandates on stormwater management are followed.

A thorough

study of the changes recommended by the planning commission.

A requirement

for developers to insure that newly-planted trees live beyond the first

two or three years after the site is developed.

The addition

of overlay zones in certain areas of the city to add requirements beyond

the normal zoning regulations.

Brown said

he doesn't want council to be rushed through approving the comprehensive

land use plan. He also wants council to consider refining the land use

ordinances to make them "more user friendly."

The stormwater

regulations are also crucial "so that the taxpayers are not having

to pay millions of dollars retrofitting future projects," Brown said.

Currently,

members of the city's planning staff have required developers to agree

to replace any newly planted vegetation that dies within the first year

of planting. But Brown argues the city doesn't have any teeth to that

requirement.

"Currently,

we ask developers to plant large numbers of trees, but the city does not

have any recourse if all the trees die in two or three years," Brown

said. "The trees are important to Peachtree City and we need to insure

that the trees remain on the site as the developer agreed."

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