Peachtree City has a nickname: "the Bubble."
Roughly translated, that means the sharp edges of real life don't intrude into this planned community south and west of Atlanta's perimeter highway, I-285. 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.
Credit: JANNELLE MIMMS
Credit: JANNELLE MIMMS
By the numbers:
- Population: About 35,000
- Size: 15,637 acres
- Chartered: March 9, 1959
- Location: In Fayette County on the southwest corner of metro Atlanta. About 25 miles southwest of Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.
- It's OTP (Atlanta lingo for "outside the perimeter" highway, I-285)
Golf carts rule: The ubiquitous golf carts that symbolize the town and its leisure culture hum along the paths connecting homes to business and shopping areas. Recreation remains one of the Peachtree City's big draws. The city has seven major parks, including an aquatics center, and playgrounds are scattered around town.
Carting to school: Peachtree City has prized its big residential backyards and network of trails that snaked through the area long before Atlanta created the Atlanta Beltline. Here even students drive golf carts to McIntosh High School.
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It was planned from scratch: 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.
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Low on crime: Peachtree City may be the safest city in Georgia. Safe Home, an organization that reviews and ranks security systems and offers crime prevention and security tips, recently conducted a study to rank cities across the country according to safety, based on 2015 crime reports. Peachtree City was named the safest in Georgia. It had a safety score of 90.36. Johns Creek was No. 2.
It's popular with airline folk: Pilots and airline employees have flocked to Peachtree City because of its relative proximity to Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, which is about 25 miles from Peachtree City's City Hall. Another factor is that the southside of metro Atlanta generally has less of Atlanta's notoriously bad traffic.
RELATED: Fayette County trying to shake its bedroom community reputation
--Compiled and edited by Brian O’Shea, with reporting and archival stories by Ralph Ellis, Leon Stafford, Najja Parker and staff reports.
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