Peachtree City has a nickname: "the Bubble."
Roughly translated, that means the sharp edges of real life don't intrude into this planned community on the Southside. Crime is low, the schools good, the economy strong. Deer nibble the golf course grass, and kids frolic in the pools. Stressed out? Relax your mind with a golf cart ride along the asphalt paths that wind through the greenbelts.
"It means life in Peachtree City is not like the real world," says longtime resident Barbara Hudson. "It's secure. It's safe. Everybody is kind of protected, adults and kids. You're kind of immune to the outside influences."
But as this Southside town of 37,000 people celebrates its 50th birthday, the bubble is quivering a little. Peachtree City is still great, say some worried residents, but they're not sure what middle age will bring.
Problems suffered elsewhere —- foreclosures, sinking house prices, unemployment —- are happening here, too. The City Council is talking about raising taxes. The oldies concerts at the amphitheater aren't selling out.
The ubiquitous golf carts that symbolize the town and its leisure culture still hum along the paths, but some people complain Peachtree City has strayed from its high ideals of planned development, as evidenced by the sprawling retail development that dominates the west side of town.
Don Haddix, a member of the City Council and a 22-year resident, says Peachtree City has lost its sense of community. He blames the big-box stores, which take people from the smaller shopping districts hidden in the city's "villages."
"When you went to the little store, you bumped into your neighbor and you'd chat," Haddix said. "The people where you shopped tended to be from where you lived. ... When you go to Wal-Mart, all you want to do is get out of there."
Omega Books used to be the town's only bookstore. Owner Karen Duncan says the big stores make survival difficult.
"Think about it. Everybody sells books today," Duncan said. "I can't compete with Wal-Mart prices. We have the used books, and that's what saved us, barely."
Leaders also wonder if the city is prepared for build-out, which means all property available for construction inside the city limits is used up. The city says there's room for about 1,100 new houses, all on 1,200 acres on the west side the city annexed a couple of years ago. Without the already-diminishing builder impact fees, new revenue sources will have to be found.
"I remember 10 years ago we talked about what will we do when the city stops growing like a weed," said Bob Lenox, mayor from 1992 to 2002. "The big requirement is to maintain what we have for as long as we have. That's not the easiest trick in the world."
An appealing formula
Peachtree City has never been like other towns in Georgia. A few businessmen bought 15,000 acres in Fayette County in the 1950s with the idea of building a town from scratch. The idea was inspired by British garden towns separated by stretches of farmland and also by the American "new towns" of Reston, Va., and Columbia, Md. (The General Assembly passed legislation creating the city on March 9, 1959, but the real town celebration took place over the July Fourth weekend.)
A master plan guided construction of four villages, Aberdeen, Glenloch, Braelinn and Kedron. Each has a small retail center and is connected to the others by a cart path system. The newly named fifth village, on the west side, is Wilksmoor.
As word of Peachtree City's recreational amenities and availability of new homes spread, the population surged: 6,429 in 1980, 19,027 in 1990, 31,580 in 2000. In the late 1980s, 800 new homes were built a year.
What made Peachtree City so special? Joel Cowan, who with the late Floy Farr shaped its direction in the early decades, thinks people like the abundant green space, the way buildings are set back far from the streets and the sedate signage.
"You come to expect a Roswell Road with competing signs," Cowan said. "When people come here, they know something is different. It's subliminal."
The formula still works for many people.
Vickie Jarosz enjoys the concerts at the amphitheater as well as the parks and taking her kids places on the family golf cart. She and her husband, Dennis Jarosz, lived all over the world as the Army moved him around. They bought a house in Peachtree City while he worked at Fort McPherson but turned down the last transfer a few years ago.
"Instead of moving, he got out so we could stay here," Vickie Jarosz said. "I love this town."
Kay Henson Lloyd, 42, loves Peachtree City, too. As a child, she biked along the ever-expanding path system that wound through greenbelts. She graduated in McIntosh High's first senior class in 1984; before that, all the Peachtree City kids went to high school in Fayetteville, 10 miles away. She grew up with the city.
"Everybody had new houses basically," she said of her youth.
Now remodeling is the trend for Lloyd and her sisters, all Realtors. Among those buyers and remodelers are Beth and Jeff Howe, who moved from Gwinnett County. The Howes paid $260,000 for a ranch-style house built around 1970 on Golf View Drive, in one of the city's older neighborhoods; they'll spend about $200,000 on renovations.
Beth Howe doesn't mind.
"The golf carts and the paths are just fun," she said. "In comparison to Norcross, it's awesome. If I'd lived here all my life, I might feel differently."
What the future may hold
How will Peachtree City handle the coming years?
Doug Mitchell, who ran the company that developed most of the town during the boom years, says Peachtree City has essentially entered build-out already and won't have a problem with it.
"I don't think it will be a big change," Mitchell said. "I think there will be a natural progression of upgrading certain locations."
But others think the city faces a major challenge.
"How will the community regenerate itself?" asked Lenox, the former mayor. "How do we get new young families to come in and repeat that?"
"We have to go into redevelopment thinking instead of new development," said Haddix, the council member.
City planning documents say the population will cap at about 40,000 when build-out arrives. Few new homes will be built unless something else is torn down. Residential builder impact fees that financed recreation will end. City tax base growth will slow. New revenue will be needed. One idea proposed by David Rast, the city's interim community development coordinator, is to charge impact fees for commercial and retail construction.
Meanwhile, the city is struggling to cut costs —- like every other local government. The city earlier laid off 23 employees in public works and four in community development, out of a work force with 263 full-time and 78 seasonal or part-time employees.
A 0.25 mill tax increase, the first since 2006, is being discussed. That's nothing compared to the 3-mill tax hikes planned for Atlanta and Clayton County, but it still hurts.
Recreation remains one of the Peachtree City's big draws —- and biggest costs. The city has seven major parks, including an aquatics center, and playgrounds are scattered around town. Two of the city's four pools are closed for the summer, except for swimming lessons and rentals. The City Council hired Cannongate, a golf course management firm, to run the city tennis center.
Rast said renovation and remodeling will become a way of life after build-out, and will be mandated in some cases. That will be especially true in neighborhoods where absentee owners rent out houses but don't keep them up. Making sure those neighborhoods look good will be important for maintaining the city's image, Rast said.
Code enforcement will become even more stringent in coming years. Mayor Harold Logsdon knows that's easier said than done. Logsdon said, "We have to find incentives for people to do this redevelopment, and we have not found that."
Lenox, like other longtime residents, hopes Peachtree City can enter middle age gracefully and still stay special.
"This place is not perfect," he said, "but it's a lot better than most places you can live in this country."
The Peachtree City file
Population: About 37,000
Size: 15,637 acres
Chartered: March 9, 1959
Recognition: Named Georgia's "Best Affordable Suburb" in the March edition of BusinessWeek magazine. In 2005 and 2007, named in the top 100 "Best Places to Live in the U.S." by CNN/Money Magazine. In 2007, named one of the "Best Places to Retire" by U.S. News and World Report.
Average house price and number of closings:
2009 $291,524 176
2008 $301,170 422
2007 $289,518 588
2006 $297,999 701
2005 $294,668 740
2004 $270,553 741
2003 $268,752 665
Source: Georgia Multiple Listings Services
Fastest-growing demographic: Over 65
Major employers: Cooper Lighting, NCR
Percent of population with bachelor's degree or higher: 45.5
Owner-occupied housing: 81.6 percent
Sources: Peachtree City, 2000 U.S. Census
Golf cart culture
If Peachtree City is known for anything, it's golf carts.
Joel Cowan, the first mayor and a major figure in the city's development during the first 17 years, said early residents came to him with a complaint. They wanted to use their personal golf carts when they played on the city's only golf course, Flat Creek.
Most golf courses would have said no, because cart rentals are a source of income. But Cowan controlled the golf course.
He said yes, and "it sort of built off that."
It didn't hurt that Westinghouse had a golf cart factory in town at the time, though Cowan thinks that's "coincidental."
In 1972, Peachtree City built a golf cart/pedestrian bridge over Ga. 54, near City Hall. In 1974, Gov. Jimmy Carter signed legislation allowing golf carts on the city's streets.
Today, Peachtree City has 10,000 registered carts and 90 miles of paved paths. Residents cruise to the grocery, the doctor, even the golf course (there are three now). Memorial Day and the Fourth of July are marked with cart parades. Carts are a source of endless pleasure to old and new residents.
Explains current Mayor Harold Logsdon: "It just feels good to get in a golf cart and go somewhere. It slows down the pace of life. ... Every golf cart you see on a path, that's one car off the road. If we didn't have the cart paths, we might have a real traffic problem in Peachtree City."
Ralph Ellis
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