10 responses to “Peachtree City Bans the Burning of Yard Debris Year-Round”

1. 

   MyCatBill

   June 6, 2025

   In this Comment section, Paul Schultz called our time-honored annual leaf burning tradition an “annoyance”. The fact that the made-up and exaggerated claims of a few got PTC Council to ban a long-standing custom that most often only lasts an hour or two (the annoyance) gave me an idea.

   I am announcing the formation of a new political action group to lobby Council for needed changes on things that annoy me. Hear me out on this.

   I started with a name, something catchy that would get low-information-types to follow me. First, I thought about Majority Against Grievous Annoyances, but clearly a majority is not required to get something through Council, and a trivial annoyance like leaf-burning can’t really fall into the “grievous” category. Plus, it appears that MAGA has already been taken by some folks out of DC.

   The naming of the group ended with my selection of Minority Against Minor Annoyances, or MAMA. I am calling on all you protest-anything-types who would stand for hours on a hot street corner yelling “Hands Off ______!” (fill in the blank with a wasteful government program here) at the sky, to join me and MAMA.

   Or even if you’re a conservative, “Get off my lawn, you kids!” type, there’s a place for you with MAMA. Whatever your political leaning, got a minor annoyance? Want a nanny-state? “Run to MAMA!”

   If a couple of residents can sway Council to ban leaf-burning, it opens up a vast array of minor annoyances in PTC that Council must address. Here is a starter list that MAMA will be lobbying our Council representatives on:

   1) Teenagers on golf carts 2) Golfers late for tee time on golf carts 3) Dead trees in the water along the east side of Lake Peachtree 4) People who feed wild geese 5) Anyone playing any kind of music louder than a speaking voice on their golf cart. 6) A special mention for #5 featuring obscene rap music. 7) E-bikes that look like motorcycles and go 30 mph on the cart paths. 8) City vehicles that apparently cannot be turned off during the work day (first responders excepted) 9) The condition of Battery Way Park and 10) The merry-go-round at All-Children’s Park that 4 grown men can’t get moving fast enough.

   Did I miss something? Send in your minor annoyances like leaf burning that MAMA can take to Council to ban. Also make your cash donations to MyCatBill c/o The Citizen.

   MAMA is looking out for you. And for the children.

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   1. 

      Doug Tucker

      June 6, 2025

      Not a bad acronym.

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   2. 

      Hometown600

      June 6, 2025

      Don’t forget the dozens of beaver lodges That a certain resident in need of a new hobby has built along the east side of Lake Peachtree cart path.

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2. 

   MyCatBill

   May 29, 2025

   This is something I would expect from a rogue HOA, not Peachtree City. So we’re doing this for the children, eh?

   I get around PTC frequently on walks, bike rides and my cart, yet I can’t recall ever seeing plumes of smoke that would be concerning to community health. In fact, one can stand next to a burning leaf pile and not have a problem. If the wind shifts, move. That’s been the rule since caveman days.

   Even assuming a wet fire with lots of smoke happens, we’re talking about an hour or so of burning. No way is this a persistent problem of generating smoke so thick that kids can’t go outside for days.

   I had never recognized the power of a marshmallow before. Put two on a stick, and your fire is no longer a public health hazard. Amazing.

   Nanny-state aside, there’s the practical problem of what to do with all the leaves and branches that a wooded lot generates. Perhaps I could borrow the trunk of your car, Mayor?

   Where did our common sense Council members go? Mr Holland? Ms Brown?

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3. 

   Phil Sukalewski

   May 29, 2025

   The stupidity of this is staggering. You would think that the burning of leaves and sticks each year causes a haze over all the city that lasts for days and is only a recent crisis that only a few enlightened understand how to deal with.
   By their logic, fire pits and charcoal bbq’s should also be banned.

   The link in the article to the official PTC announcement has a video where they encourage you to call 911 to snitch on your neighbors if you suspect they are burning illegally (be a good racist won’t you now) and to now load all your yard debris into your Lexus and take it to the Yard Waste Facility on the south side.

   Covid really has warped some minds, and now they have assumed positions of power. No wonder they want Councilman Frank Destadio’s seat to remain vacant for the next 6 months. Vote wisely this Fall or the tyranny will spread.

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   1. 

      Paul Schultz

      May 29, 2025

      Hello, Phil!

      What is interesting is that there were no “against” voices at public comment while there were many “in favor” voices at the Council meeting.

      Actually, by their logic fire pits and bbq’s wouldn’t be banned (are are not banned) because those fires burn fairly cleanly and are limited in size. The folks complaining were talking about burn pits several feet across with fires that continued to some degree over several days. I’m just happy that my neighbor can no longer make the futile attempt to burn wet leaves with the absolutely acrid smoke rolling into my home on an otherwise enjoyable spring day compelling me to close all my windows and turn on the A/C.

      I’m trying to understand your “nuclear option” in describing the ban on backyard burning using words like racist/warped minds/Covid (really?)/snitch/”positions of power”. Pretty over the top IMHO…

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   2. 

      My.02

      May 29, 2025

      Paul – Your neighbor is an idiot, you (and others) are playing victim, or both.

      So your neighbor waits until Spring to try to burn his leaves rather than Fall when everyone else does theirs? When they’ve become a sloppy pile of moldering goo?

      Solution #1: talk with your neighbor, and let him know that he’s an idiot to wait until Spring. He’ll thank you for the advice, and the rest of us don’t have to be micro-managed by the city.

      Solution #2: talk with your neighbor. Ask him to do his “Spring burn” at a time you aren’t at home. Neighbors do this for each other.

      Or you’re a California transplant who doesn’t know leaf burning is done in the Fall, just how huge the leaf pile would have to be for it to keep going for days (and unattended at night?), that there would be no smoke if your neighbor’s attempt to burn wet leaves was futile, or that neighbors talk through stuff before going to the city.

      I suspect you (and others) are playing the victim. The fact you all exaggerate the problem (huge burn piles that go on for days), didn’t talk with your neighbor, or even just open windows on the other side of your house for an hour or so, leads us toward that conclusion.

      And no one thought through how average homeowner without a pickup truck gets several cubic yards of leaves and sticks to the south side of PTC?

      As a result of this ordinance, I have an idea. I’m calling on Council to ban pressure washers. They are extremely loud, excessive noise causes hearing loss, and kids (babies!) are especially sensitive to noises. My neighbors regularly use pressure washers that I can hear in my house, and I have to turn the tv volume up.

      You’ve shown you can take action on “public health concerns”, Council. Pass the pressure washer ban now. For the children.

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      1. 

         Paul Schultz

         May 29, 2025

         Hi! I had no skin in the game as I was at the City Council meeting for a different reason and did not play the victim as I spoke neither for/against. I did not exaggerate anything- I only know what those who spoke “for” were saying, and I have no reason to doubt them. I’m still surprised those against the ban did not show up. Certainly, my neighbor lacks good judgement, and I had the annoyance 2-3 times a year for an afternoon or an evening, but it is not a hill I’m willing to die on. I didn’t even know which neighbor was doing it; all I know is the smell rolled into my home. You’re speaking of things neighbors do for each other. Why don’t you talk to one of your neighbors who has a truck? Also, I have a space in the back of my yard that I left wild and just throw leaves and other degradable yard waste there; it’s been a long time since I’ve had to take my truck (which I did buy partly because I’m a homeowner and a truck comes in handy when you’re a homeowner) to the Rockaway facility.

         By the way, I’m from Iowa and came to PTC in 1997. Half my family lives in Franklin County, Tennessee so I’m not some left coast transplant trying to remake PTC. I suspect your ordinance proposal will go nowhere because some business’ main offering is pressure washing, and the impact to legitimate businesses in PTC would be something nobody on council would support.

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         1. 

            Mike LaTella

            May 30, 2025

            “Backyard burns” have always been considered an effective, practical and cost-free method of yard debris removal. However, few people (I would hope) would carry out the event if they knew that a neighbor close by would have to banish their child to indoors, especially if that banishment went on for “days at a time.” Wouldn’t “days at a time” require the burn event to be continuous over the same amount of days? How often does that happen? Sorry, but I am having trouble believing that on a regular basis children are being isolated indoors for “days at a time” due to a neighbor burning leaves.
            Regardless, restricting the rights of A L L homeowners in the city in such a permanent and comprehensive manner seems to be overreach and short-sighted. I bet that if you restricted each address to two half day burn events during the allowable months of October – May and not allow those burn permits to be issued on a subsequent day (days), 95% of the populace would be good with that. This would eliminate any multiple-day indoor restrictions, provide for a guaranteed short window of event length and frequency while still allowing those who find benefit in having yard projects that culminate in burning of the yard debris happy.

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      2. 

         My.02

         May 30, 2025

         Hey, Paul – Iowa? I guess you didn’t come across too many leaves and sticks as you were growing up there. From my youth, the smell of burning leaves IS the smell of Fall.

         You do show some Midwestern common sense. You came up with two solutions that might work in certain situations, so you get points for trying.

         Yes, if one has a neighbor with a truck who is willing to loan his $80,000 F-150 to haul sticks and leaves for the neighborhood, lucky you. Almost all of my neighbors, like me, are retired and left our pickup days long ago.

         Except there’s a possibility in the new owners of the house up the street that just sold, although they reportedly are from California. I’m expecting neck tattoos, multiple piercings, green hair, a Defund The Police t-shirt and a Subaru or a Tesla, but no truck.

         It is possible that someone with enough property that doesn’t want to use part of it could just pile everything up and let nature take over. But nature’s winds have a tendency to blow a third of what you raked up into your neighbors’ yards for them to deal with. And vice versa.

         And how long would it be before someone, perhaps my new neighbor from California, is sipping his latte’ on a cold Georgia winter Saturday, looking out his back window into his neighbors’ yards at the huge piles of moldering goo that used to be leaves and sticks, and says to his wife, “Karen, we have to get the city to do something about these huge piles of moldering goo in our neighbors’ yards!”

         He’d continue: “I mean, they are an eyesore. Plus there’s all kinds of rodents and bugs and snakes and ewwwww out there. And mold. It’s unsafe for our kids to go outside. We must ban the piles! For the children.”

         My ordinance proposal to ban pressure washers was as serious as I hoped our Council members would have taken the leaf burning ban demand. Leaf-burning at worst is “an annoyance 2-3 times a year for an afternoon or evening”, as you said.

         Unfortunately, it sounds as if Council got bamboozled by exaggerated claims of massive days-long “mega-burns”, and went for the complete ban instead of a less-intrusive solution, like all fires out by midnight – – if indeed someone really was letting it go overnight.

         The burn ban is actually an ordinance that mostly soothes the emotions of the annoyed few like you, but the Mayor tries to sell it cloaked in do-gooder language. After all, it’s for the children. Who could be against that?

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