The Big Three - Can Peachtree Corners Do Better?

Greetings,

One of the promises being made by the pro-city side of the Peachtree Corners incorporation debate is that a new city would be able to deliver certain services more effectively and in some cases cheaper than is currently being provided by the county. 

Many people who are against incorporation have argued that they are currently satisfied with service delivery and see no reason to incorporate simply to improve delivery of these services.  The reasons to be for or against incorporation are more complex than just service delivery effectiveness but for some people this is the main issue that will decide which way they vote on November 8th.

Let’s examine the three services that a city of Peachtree Corners would take over from the county and some of the current issues surrounding these service areas 

1.  Code Enforcement - The Gwinnett County government uses the term "Quality of Life Unit." Basically these are the people who you call when the empty house next to yours has a jungle growing in the front yard, a roof caving in or a huge pile of garbage building up in the back.  But to be a little more official I pulled some info off the Gwinnett County government website: 

Purpose - "The Quality of Life Unit is dedicated to educating and informing citizens of the codes and ordinances established for the county by the Board of Commissioners, which set minimum requirements and standards regarding property and structures to promote and protect the public health, safety, convenience, order, and general welfare of all its citizens. These minimum standards are designed to preserve and improve the quality of life for present and future citizens of the county and promote a sense of community, preserve the sanctity of the family, facilitate quiet and peaceful neighborhoods, limit congestion of motor vehicles, and control transiency."  

Scope - " The Gwinnett County Police Quality of Life Unit is responsible for enforcing the Gwinnett County Occupational Tax and Business Regulation Ordinance, the Property Maintenance Ordinance, the Sign Ordinance, the Solid Waste Ordinance, the Taxi Ordinance (sworn personnel only) and the Zoning Resolution within the unincorporated areas of Gwinnett County only."

Staffing - "This unit is comprised of 15 civilian Code Enforcement Officers and 3 civilian Code Enforcement Supervisors as well as 4 sworn Police Officers and a Police Sergeant."

Enforcement - "In 2010, The Code Enforcement Unit investigated 9,772 complaints, issued 8,410 notices of violation, issued 1,093 citations, and removed 20,135 illegal signs."  So for a county of about 808,000 residents we have 23 workers (if you include the police officers). 

Earlier this week there was an article on WSB.com that reported on the Code Enforcement situation here in Gwinnett http://www.wsbtv.com/news/28955077/detail.html.  The article is titled "Abandoned Homes pose problem for code enforcement officers."

The article describes the current department as being on the verge of being overwhelmed by the sheer number of code violations brought about by the foreclosure crisis.  The report quotes a Code Enforcement Officer has stating that 30% of their time is now taken up with dealing with foreclosed homes and he expects the problem to simply get worse. 

A report from WABE (Atlanta NPR station) http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wabe/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1729885/Atlanta.Morning.Edition/Gwinnett's.Increasing.Homeless.Population.Face.Limited.Options late last year reported that there were over 50,000 foreclosures in Gwinnett last year.  

This is a problem that is not getting any better. I checked the financial analysis performed by Vinson Institute http://www.upcca.com/item_list.asp?subcat=18&subtitle=Feasibility+Study and it was silent on exactly how many code enforcement officers a city of Peachtree Corners would have but considering that the estimated financial costs were about one third the expected revenue (check out Table One in the Executive Summary) gathered it would seem reasonable to expect that the new city would easily be able to staff a code enforcement department that would never be “overwhelmed” as the county office currently is.   

2.  Trash – Unlike Code Enforcement, the county does not provide trash service directly through an agency of government employees but instead contracts this service out to private companies.  Prior to 2011 residents in unincorporated Gwinnett were able to pick and choose the trash provider they preferred.

Unfortunately some residents used this freedom of choice to choose “none of the above.”  They would simply dump their trash in the woods behind their house, the side of the road, random dumpsters, etc. This situation resulted in eyesores throughout the county and in my opinion lowered the overall quality of life for everyone. 

Another negative was that neighborhoods would have trash trucks rumbling through their streets each and every day due to the various companies coming through to service as few as two to three houses.  This created a safety issue for neighborhoods with small children who liked to play in the street. 

To address these issues the county attempted to create a plan that would provide everyone equal service at a competitive rate.  It would require all homeowners to participate and it would also result in trucks coming through neighborhoods just once a week since only one company would be providing the service. 

Lots of citizen uproar http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=145182&provider=top and a few legal proceedings later http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett/judge-clears-way-for-457330.html we now have a system that basically does what the company originally set out to do but the county is divided up geographically among several companies instead of just one. 

The rates, at least for me, are about 10% higher than what I was paying when I was making my own deal.  The current required payment only covers basic trash pickup.  If you want yard clippings and such picked up that is extra. 

I think the two biggest complaints people have with the trash plan is 1) in general it is more expensive than what they were paying which considering the economy of scale and geographic simplification of the new plan for trash companies it should have resulted in lower bills for everyone and 2) just the way the plan was implemented. 

In general people don’t like to feel something was crammed down their throat.  If you research the issue you will see that there were public hearings on the issue leading up to a vote by the County Commission so it was not as if this was done secretly.  Where the issue is, I believe, is that people were upset about other things (i.e. stadium deal, shady land transactions, property tax increase) that made them question if the leadership was not yet again doing something that would end up costing the tax payers for something either they did not want or something that was of equal or lesser quality than what they were already getting but at a higher price.  Basically the timing of the plan could not have been worse. 

The pro-city supporters are claming that a city of Peachtree Corners would potentially be able to provide trash service at a rate lower than the current plan.  A recent flyer that was sent out by the pro-city group Peachtree Corners Yes http://www.peachtreecornersyes.com claim potential savings up to $100 per household may be achievable.  Conversations I have had with people familiar with this calculation tell me they cannot reveal which trash hauler provided this estimate because the trash hauler does not want to be brought into this political debate.  I have seen some fairly detailed calculations on the savings for each house though it is unclear if the estimate was provided by a hauler that is currently providing trash service to the county. 

I’m not in the trash business so I’m not sure how they could provide the service cheaper than what we are paying now but I would suspect the geographic compactness / density of our area would definitely make things easier for a company logistically which would result in lower gas costs and the ability to get the job done quickly since they would not have to drive long distances.  Right now we are subsidizing (remember, right now everyone pays the same) the extra gas and logistical costs for residents in the more rural areas of the county.  With our own contract we would not have to do that anymore.

3.  Planning / Zoning – Gwinnett County has a planning and development department http://www.gwinnettcounty.com/portal/gwinnett/Departments/2030UnifiedPlan and within that department in the county zoning board http://www.gwinnettcounty.com/portal/gwinnett/Departments/PlanningandDevelopment/Rezoning-SUP. 

Basically the Planning department lays out a vision for all they think the county should be developed over the next 20-25 years.  In general having such a plan is a good idea because it prevents haphazard development and instead provides some direction to developers on how the county would like to see things proceed.  For example, having certain roads designated as major commercial arteries is preferable to having commercial development in the middle of neighborhoods where it could create unnecessary traffic issues. 

Long range development plans should, and in general do, reflect the wishes of the citizens in how they want their county developed.  When the majority of the residents are on the same page on how they want their county developed there tends to be limited controversy and development proceeds quite smoothly which of course private developers really like because it eliminates potential uncertainty and all the negatives that come with uncertainty like lawsuits and other random expenses.  However, when opinions start to diverge on how the county should develop and grow it can create a lot of disagreement. 

For many decades Gwinnett had an avowed pro-growth strategy that resulted in the county population growing from about 70,000 in 1970 to well over 800,000 today.  As anyone who lives here knows the traffic from 800,000 people (plus all the residents from other counties that travel to and through our county) is horrendous.  Another consequence of this pro-growth strategy was that commercial development was approved without much thought to anything besides driving tax revenue that was needed to build more roads to accommodate all the new residents. 

When you compare Gwinnett to Fulton (both in the city and north Fulton) and Cobb it is striking the difference in large corporations that are located in those counties compared to Gwinnett.  Granted Gwinnett has recently been actively courting major corporations to move here (NCR is a recent example) but in general we have lagged behind.  Our commercial development has been more consumer based (shops, malls, restaurants, etc) instead of corporate headquarters (Weather Channel, UPS, Home Depot, Coke) or major regional offices (McKesson, Lockheed). 

One of the negatives of having primarily consumer-based commercial development is that these developments have a shelf life of maybe 10-15 years before the property starts to look run down and consumers move on to something newer and nicer.  As a result our areas start to take on the appearance of decay (remember when Gwinnett Place was so nice and new?). 

When these consumer based commercial strips start to decline the original tenants simply move to new areas and are often replaced by lower end establishments (check cashing, pawn shops, title shops, we buy gold, tattoo parlors, etc).  Major corporations tend to keep up their property and are less influenced by the shopping whims of local residents. 

Why does it matter what kind of commercial development we have nearby?  It matters because residents who have a major investment in their homes want commercial establishments that cater to their tastes.  Someone who owns a $300,000 home probably does not go to a check cashing store or a pawn shop.  If these residents believe their area is in decline they will vote with their feet and move away.  When enough residents do this it creates downward pressure on home prices and the downward economic death spiral begins.  We are not there - at least not yet.

So how would a Peachtree Corners planning department / zoning board be better than what we have right now through the county?  Two thoughts here. 

First, let’s examine what a de-facto planning department and zoning board for Peachtree Corners (the UPCCA) has already been able to do even without any legal power.  They helped bring the Forum to our area which is now our economic crown jewel.  Various development ideas were hatched for that land and some were not nearly as nice as the Forum. The UPCCA fought hard to ensure that what was built there would enhance our community and not just be another faceless strip mall.

Take a look at Peachtree Parkway and then go drive along Buford Highway.  Peachtree Parkway looks a lot better partially because of the voluntary program that the UPCCA implemented where property owners pay extra for the landscape maintenance.  The UPCCA also helped fight to keep Best Buy out of The Forum and Wal-Mart out as well. 

Now some may ask what is wrong with Best Buy and Wal Mart. Nothing in particular but big box stores will uproot when times get tough and leave us with a big empty eye sore.  Don’t we already have enough of those?

Second, who do you think approved the existing commercial development on Buford Highway, Holcomb Bridge and Peachtree Industrial?  The Gwinnett County zoning board did.  They did not approve these developments with any type of malice or ill will.  They approved these developments based on the overall county plan they had at the time plus they also approved these developments because the county wanted whatever commercial development it could get because it needed the tax revenue. 

There is nothing particularly wrong with either of these motivations but in retrospect the decisions they made have not turned out to be necessarily the best for Peachtree Corners.  A planning department and zoning board made up of Peachtree Corners residents focused solely on the desires of what Peachtree Corners wants is going to do things that reflect our desires and aspirations for our area. 

When you get to 800,000 residents you are going to have a divergence of opinion in what you want.  Dacula and Buford may want things done differently than what Peachtree Corners wants.  That is natural.  However, right now we cannot make those decisions because we have very limited legal power as the zoning board might have one representative that might be from our area. 

So, there you have it – Code Enforcement, Trash, Planning / Zoning.  Each resident has an opinion on which is most important to him or her but ultimately all three are critical to maintaining and improving Peachtree Corners. 

I have attempted to explain what each service is, what Gwinnett County currently provides and what a city of Peachtree Corners could potentially do to improve upon existing services.  In general Gwinnett County is not failing at any of three but there is huge potential for improvement and upside if Peachtree Corners takes these services over.  “Its OK” should not be acceptable for an area like ours.  We have the ability to do so much better if given the opportunity. 

Please don’t forget the Town Hall this Monday at 7:30 at the Peachtree Corners Baptist Church Fellowship Hall.