The city's development standards

are still on the leading edge as we often get inquiries from other communities

throughout the state and nation seeking help and information.

Love it or loathe it, the Pavilion

provides shopping convenience and a broadened tax base for the entire

county. I would compare the quality of the architectural and landscape

standards to any power center in the United States.

Ten percent of the annexations

involved four of our church congregations. It would be my sincere hope

and plan for the city to continue to help our churches to expand their

congregations and influence.

The next group of annexations

involves our outstanding hospital and associated facilities. For over

a decade literally hundreds of Fayette Countians worked to obtain a CON,

Certificate of Need, so that we could have a first class medical facility.

A large operation like a hospital needs to be on a sewer system. All three

contenders to build a hospital in Fayette County had land next to the

western city limits, midpoint of the county, so they could tie into the

city's sewer system. Again, I hope that if the hospital has future needs

to expand their service to the community, the city will be able to assist.

The next category is the Board

of Education. The city annexed the Cleveland Elementary school site on

Lester Road. We will let the BOE determine how much money they saved by

joining the city sewer rather than having to build their own facility.

The BOE just purchased additional property for a new school on Ga. Highway

54 West. One might expect another annexation request to Fayetteville or

Peachtree City. Hopefully, we will be able to again help save the taxpayers

additional money that might better be used to educate our children.

It is interesting to note that

we have discussed 70 percent of all annexations and the first house has

not been built.

There are two major areas the

city has annexed for homes in the past 12 years. The first area is Redwine

Road where John Wieland Homes has built the Lakemont and Lakeside subdivisions.

These are large developments of three-quarter-acre homes. They are typical

of other Wieland homes on Redwine Road into Peachtree City and are some

of the nicer areas for families in our community.

The latest 36-acre annexation

completes the Lakeside development. This was the most beneficial and exciting

project to date. It completes the protection of the entire eastern section

of the Whitewater/Gingercake watershed area where the city obtains most

of their water.

Even more exciting, by purchasing

the land, Wieland Homes helped the city resolve a long-standing lawsuit

in which the city was able to purchase or obtain over 280 acres of permanent

greenspace. We have thus been able to protect large portions of the Whitewater/Gingercake

watershed from south of Burch Road almost to Redwine Road.

Who benefits? Everyone.

The other major area of residential

growth has been on the west side of Ga. Highway 314 North. This land has

been zoned for half- and three-quarter-acre lots. However, only half of

the property was zoned for homes so that the total number of housing units

was reduced. The front of these properties was zoned OI, office institutional,

or light commercial.

This fulfills our commitment

to preclude heavy commercial development on the west side of Hwy. 314.

With the OI zoning across from the Pavilion and the new Bank of America

building on the corner of Hwy. 314 and New Hope Road, beautifully landscaped,

I might add, we have protected all of the families along New Hope Road

from having to worry about any commercial encroachment into their neighborhood.

These are all county residents and friends whose interests we have tried

to preserve.

Finally, in May of this year

we annexed 152.8 acres on Lester Road. This was at the request of the

current county commission. Evidently the county was being sued over this

parcel of land. We made dismissal of the suit a condition of annexation,

thus saving all taxpayers a few dollars.

We zoned the land exactly the

way the county requested and actually allowed a few less homes. With our

"conservation development standards" which we have had for years

under the term PUD, the developer was able to maintain about 37 percent

open space. Most of the open space was located next to the larger lots

in the county, thus mitigating any adverse effects to our friends in this

areas.

Even though this tract of land

also had access on Norton Road, three Norton Road residents did not want

the new subdivision to have an entrance on Norton Road. The city and the

developer honored their request.

There have been several other

small annexations over the years, none less than a half-acre.

To be perfectly open, there

have been some much higher density developments in the city on land already

zoned for higher density. In fact, in the core city, we encourage higher

densities.

The downtown area is where

these types of homes belong. If we are to have a vibrant downtown, we

must have a higher concentration of residents. By definition that is what

city means.

Do we have all the answers,

Cal? No, we do not, but we work at it and try to involve all segments

of the community. We actively solicit input from homeowner groups, the

business community, the University System, and any other source of information.

Cal, I hope you have found

the aforementioned review of salient facts useful in your quest for accuracy.

I stand ready to assist you with any additional information you may want.

Ken Steele

Mayor

Fayetteville