Peachtree City

In 2009, Peachtree City is a 50-year-old thriving “new town.” But when it was incorporated in 1959, it was 5,000 acres of farmland with little more than potential. The 1960 census did not record an official count until implored to three years later so that the city could apply for federal funds. Even by the next federal census, the city had less than 1,000 people. However, by the mid-1970s, the population was close to 5,000, and the next three decades saw phenomenal growth as the city kept a balance between industry, greenspace, and the needs of its residents. Moving from potential to fruition takes planning, cooperation, and determination from a city’s leaders. In the late 1950s, young Georgia Tech student Joel Cowan enlisted the help of local banker and insider Floy Farr, and together they laid the foundation for Peachtree City. The 1980s and 1990s would see increased growth as word spread about Georgia’s planned community and its vast promise for a near-perfect life. Peachtree City is one of America’s “new towns” that did not go bust—managing to go from bud, to boom, to bloom . . . a place its residents “love to call home.”