DALTON, Ga. — With the Haig Mill Lake Park opening nearby a couple of months ago, some residents of the Windemere subdivision saw an opportunity to link the neighborhood to the park, which is just across Haig Mill Lake Road.

“We are always looking for ways to make our neighborhood more attractive,” said Vance Embry, president of the Windemere Landowners Association. “When we found out about the potential to operate (personal transportation vehicles) here, we thought that would be one way to make this place more attractive.”

The idea, he says, is for residents to not only be able to ride the PTVs on the streets in the subdivision but to ride them over to the park.

The Dalton City Council recently approved an ordinance allowing for the operation of PTVs on some residential streets if citizens request it and the council approves it.

“These are basically golf carts, but they have to be equipped for the street — have headlights, taillights, mirrors, seat belts. They aren’t necessarily what you’d see on a golf course,” said Dalton Police Department Assistant Chief Chris Crossen.

Crossen said the state changed the law not long ago to allow cities to permit PTVs on residential streets.

“City Administrator Jason Parker was the one who brought that to everyone’s attention and said that we might have some neighborhoods that meet the law and where the residents wanted them,” Crossen said.

Windemere is the first neighborhood to request to be able to use PTVs.

“They applied to the city administrator and he sent it to us to make sure the streets will meet all the criteria,” said Dalton Public Works Assistant Director Andrew Parker.

PTVs can’t be operated on federal highways, state roads or heavily-trafficked cross streets. They can only be operated on residential streets with speed limits of no more than 25 mph.

“We are currently looking at Windemere,” said Andrew Parker. “There’s a lot of different things we’ll be looking at. We review sight distances, where the PTVs will be crossing, street grades. We just want to make sure it really is safe to be operating PTVs along these streets. We are going to be looking at how safe it would be to operate PTVs on those streets as well as their impact on traffic.”

Part of the process for officials from public works is to actually ride a PTV along the street and look at sight lines and the other factors.

Officials say it is possible some streets in a neighborhood or subdivision could be appropriate for PTVs but not others.

If public works recommends a street or streets for PTV use, that recommendation will go to the City Council for final approval.

If the city approves a street, public works will put up signs to both notify PTV owners they can drive on that street and to alert drivers to be aware that PTVs may be on the street. Andrew Parker said no signs have been made yet because no streets have been designated for PTVs but the department has designed a yellow warning sign showing a PTV.

The police department will have to inspect any PTVs before they can be used on residential streets. 

“We can check them out, to make sure they are legal. But until the council has approved some streets there’s really not much point in us doing that,” Crossen said.

He said there will be a $15 registration fee that will be good for five years. The department will issue a proof of registration, and the driver must keep that and proof of insurance with the PTV when operating it on a street.

Sam Johnson, owner of Golf Carts of Dalton, said many of his customers have expressed interest in using their golf carts as personal transportation vehicles and he expects other neighborhoods will be asking to have streets designated for their use. Johnson said he has reviewed the law and spoken to police and all of the golf carts he sells are legal to operate on city streets.

Jason Parker said the city is still working on formalizing the application process but until that is complete people interested in getting a street or neighborhood designated for PTVs can contact his office, the police department or public works.

“Probably public works would be the most appropriate,” he said.

Public works can be reached at (706) 278-7077.