Peachtree Corners – City Services and City Charter

In Georgia, a city is required to provide a minimum of three municipal services. There are no requirements regarding which three services must be provided.  As we have discussed, Peachtree Corners will provide three quality of life services: Planning & Zoning, Code Compliance and Waste Disposal.

These services were chosen because they have the most positive impact on our property values and community appearance. They are also among the most cost effective to provide.

Rather than adding another “layer” of government, the city will be solely responsible for only these services. We will continue to rely upon Gwinnett County for all other government services. That means we can deal directly with our own city representatives for our three chosen services rather than trying to find someone in Lawrenceville to help us!  

While we have limited the services we are offering, our City Charter allows the city flexibility if citizens in the future decide they want to change or add more services.

The City Council will have the ability to pass a resolution identifying the additional service(s) to be provided from those listed in the charter.  If the vote is in favor of the service, that service will be implemented. If the vote is against, the resolution will be null and void.

By providing the ability to amend our charter, we will have the ability to determine the scope of government we desire. Without this provision, we would be required to petition the Georgia General Assembly for permission to add these services. Most Cities must ask the legislature for approval to amend their Charter resulting in citizens from all over Georgia having input into local City business.

We will be discussing Code Compliance in our next blog. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions for blog topics, please e-mail us at blog@upcca.org.