Leaders of the movement to incorporate Peachtree Corners laid out their case Monday night for creating a new city, telling about 500 mostly supportive residents that they must protect the character of their area.
State Rep. Tom Rice and United Peachtree Corners Civic Association President Mike Mason implored the crowd to get out the vote for the Nov. 8 referendum that would allow Peachtree Corners to become Gwinnett County’s 16th city.
"We want to control our own destiny," said Rice, who introduced the legislation in March that called for the referendum.
Mason, Rice and other UPCCA officials organized the town hall meeting at Peachtree Corners Baptist Church with about two months left before the referendum, billing the vote as "the most important decision we ever make as a community."
If residents fail to support incorporation, they warned, Peachtree Corners could be left vulnerable to neighboring cities who seek to annex their valuable industrial and commercial areas. That would portend a bleak future, they said: plummeting property values; an aging and disinterested population; and a loss of community identity.
"Doing nothing is not an option," Mason said.
Incorporating Peachtree Corners has long been discussed in Gwinnett, but the idea gathered steam in 2009 when the city of Norcross considered annexation of the Technology Park area.
If a majority of voters approve the referendum, Peachtree Corners would become the largest city in Gwinnett, with an estimated 38,000 residents encompassing an area between Norcross and Berkeley Lake.
The city would then hire a city manager and host municipal elections in the spring to fill out a six-member city council, which would include three at-large members. Peachtree Corners would offer only three government services: planning and zoning, code enforcement and trash pickup; the area’s police, fire and parks departments would still fall under the control of Gwinnett County.
Officials said Peachtree Corners would start operating as a city by June.
Many attendees who left the meeting clutched "Vote Yes" yard signs, indicating the message had resonated with an already sympathetic crowd.
"This made me feel like it was a good thing to do," said Simon Wakefield, a resident of the Riverview neighborhood since 1994. "They answered most of my questions."
But opponents of the proposal were skeptical of the UPCCA's concerns, saying Peachtree Corners residents don't need another layer of government or more property taxes. Byron Gilbert, who recently organized the anti-incorporation Peachtree Corners Ballott Committee, said incorporation supporters were mostly "preaching to the choir" on Monday.
"In sales you try to create the crisis to get people to move," he said. "But I don’t think there is a crisis in Peachtree Corners. Gwinnett County has been doing a great job for us."
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