Peachtree City leaders late Thursday ended four months of strife by rejecting a request to transform a tree-lined section of town into a water park resort.
About 200 residents showed up at a City Council meeting to urge leaders to deny Great Wolf Lodge’s request to rezone 38.4 acres off Aberdeen Parkway. The council voted 5-0 to reject the controversial rezoning request.
Thursday’s decision essentially dashed Great Wolf ‘s plans of turning a conference center on the site into a resort with a hotel, eateries, arcade and indoor water park.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed but it shows how the government and the public works,” said Great Wolf Chief Executive Kim Schaefer. “We’ll have to regroup. We put together the best plan we could. We’re still very committed to Georgia. Now we’ll start a new search.”
It was estimated the facility would draw a half-million visitors a year and generate about 770 jobs and millions of dollars in revenue annually.
But for some residents no amount of money was worth losing the cozy small-town feel that has come to define Peachtree City.
Great Wolf Lodge’s plan ignited one of the biggest protests over development this planned community of 35,000 has ever seen.
While the uproar started over a water park, it quickly morphed into a showdown between the Golf Cart Brigade — residents who live in Peachtree City for its laid-back lifestyle — and city leaders who protesters say are bent on dismantling the town’s half-century of slow, managed growth.
“Peachtree City has, until recently, tried to keep the rural small-time feel, and that’s changed with the last two administrations,” said John DuFresne, who lives near the proposed site and has become a spokesman for many residents.
Thursday, the overflow crowd listened as top Great Wolf executives assured residents that the company would be a “good neighbor.”
Schaefer reiterated that the company is “family-oriented,” and “destination-based.”
“We are not an amusement park,” Schaefer told the crowd. “We don’t anticipate a noise situation. Everything is controlled and indoors.”
Alex Lombardo, senior vice president of development, also told the crowd the company planned to spend $90 million on the renovation and construction. He also noted that the company is “not requesting any incentives from the city at all.”
But several protesters came armed with well-researched Power Points that noted Great Wolf hasn’t turned a profit in eight years.
Opponents began assembling a few hours before the meeting in the parking lot of a local shopping center. When the vote was taken, the crowd cheered.
But not all Peachtree City residents were against the project.
Earlier in the day, before the vote was taken, resident Tim Kaigler said the resort would be a boon for Peachtree City.
“The revenue growth and job generation will far outweigh any potential negative impact,” said Kaigler, a dentist who has lived in Peachtree City since 1989. “I think any negative impact can be mitigated completely if City Council puts the proper buffer zones and noise mitigation requirements in place.”
Kaigler said he remembers the protests when it was announced that The Avenue, a posh shopping district near Great Wolf’s proposed project, would be built.
“Everybody thought that was going to be the end of Peachtree City, and it hasn’t been,” he said. “This is a quiet bedroom community. We don’t want to see overgrowth, but you’ve got to be smart. No telling what could go in there. It could be a lot worse.”
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