It was barely four years ago Mike Mason was the president of
the United Peachtree Corners Civic Association on the campaign trail to sell us
all on a new concept in local government that he branded "city-lite".
As the story went, this was a brand new
form of government. A city chartered for
only 3 services - trash collection, code enforcement, and planning and
zoning. He touted a financial study that
said the whole thing could be run for $750,000. It was all very simple. He promised local control of whether and
where apartments would be built and cheaper trash. That was the mission and the cost of the
proposed city of Peachtree Corners a mere four years ago.
Here we are four years later. Mason is now Mayor. The city has a budget nearing $10 million
dollars, debt nearing $20 million*, a cash slush-fund of $22 million, and a
series of residential zoning approvals that include hundreds of new
apartments. The city owns two large tracts
of land including the property across from the Forum and a stake* in the old
Simpsonwood retreat. And now they are planning a monstrosity of a
pedestrian bridge to span 141 and connect the Forum to the strip mall across
the street.
City employees give lofty presentations that this bridge
will be an everlasting, iconic structure to rival the Eiffel Tower and
Washington Monument. It will reflect Peachtree
Corners mission to be "innovative and remarkable". It
will last the ages. It will bring
businesses and jobs. It will inspire
your twenty-something kid to get out of your basement and into their own
apartment. I would not be surprised if
it solved world hunger and made Iran really and truly America's friend. It is
a wonderful, magical bridge... that connects Sprouts to Belk over a busy
four-lane highway.
Gone is all the talk of a small, un-ambitious, fiscally minuscule, little city government. No one utters
the word city-lite anymore. No one
refers to or remembers the city charter with its three little services. The talk of a $750,000 budget was abandoned
before the last vote for the first city council was counted. The cost of this magical bridge between two
shopping malls has yet to be disclosed.
The city represents that it will be funded by a Special Purpose Local Option
Sales Tax - SPLOST. They intimate that
this funding mechanism somehow means it is free and that SPLOST is a permanent
endless supply of dollars rather than a tax that must be approved by tax-payer
vote.
The idea of city-lite was a great sales pitch to convince a
citizenry skeptical of politicians and sick to death of big government to vote
it into existence. It turns out this was
just marketing. After all, who wants to
be mayor of a city known for cheap trash pickup and not much else. Now the city is to be "innovative and
remarkable." We should accept that
apartments are not really apartments if they are labeled "millennial housing". And that a giant,
meandering pedestrian bridge spanning a busy highway is some magical conduit to
higher property values and better paying jobs.
So is this a bridge to some glorious future or just another
tribute to government expansion and political ego? Is the marketing of the bridge as a necessary feature real or just a way for six-figure salaried city employees to justify their
existence? Is there any way to bring
back city-lite and the lofty promise of something so small and
unobtrusive? Or are we doomed to watch
the government grow ever-larger and ever more deaf to the desires of the
citizens that brought it into existence?
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* Update 4-12-16 of clarifying points: The city's debt is currently about $12 million. This is a result of the purchase of the land across from the Forum. The council voted late last year "By a 5-2 vote the
Council voted to authorize $15.25M in bonds for the DDA to use for projects
related to the Town Center project." This is authorization to issue debt, but is not yet actual debt. Additionally, although an AJC article referenced here led us to believe the city purchased a stake in Simpsonwood, members of city hall have informed us the $2 million was a "gift" to the church to make the deal with the county happen. No ownership interest was purchased for those dollars.
