With an eye

on smoothing out the development process, the Peachtree City Planning

Commission will use more workshops in the near future.

Workshops were

a necessity earlier this year when the city was enforcing a development

moratorium that was later overturned in court. But now, officials believe

workshops can be used to help create better planning, particularly for

complex projects.

The commission

will schedule a series of workshops for its May 13 meeting. The commission

meets the second and fourth Mondays of each month.

Jim Williams,

the city's director of developmental services, said workshops help remove

the combative aspects of some projects since developers know the commission

won't vote on the project at that meeting.

"It seems

to me there is a real benefit for us," Williams said.

The commission

voted 4-0 to begin devoting one of its two monthly meetings to workshop

items, with the possibility of a few action items that could be added

if necessary. Commissioner Dennis Payton was absent for the vote.

"The real

important thing is getting it right," Williams said, adding that

he thought using workshops might actually speed up approval for complicated

projects.

Mayor Steve

Brown endorsed the proposal, encouraging the commission to hold the workshops

"It leads

to a lot more creativeness and innovation," Brown said.

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