MOULTRIE, Ga. — Colquitt County commissioners hope they have a process in place that will allow residents to legally drive golf carts within their neighborhoods.

At the commission’s meeting Tuesday, County Administrator Chas Cannon and County Attorney Lester Castellow proposed allowing neighborhoods to petition to allow “personal transportation vehicles,” which includes golf carts and similar vehicles, to operate on certain streets where the speed limit is 25 miles per hour.

The issue came to the commission’s attention at its July 5 meeting when residents of the Tallokas Trails subdivision complained about enhanced enforcement of golf cart laws in their neighborhood.

As described at that meeting, a resident of Tallokas Trails had contacted law enforcement about an underage driver on an ATV who was driving dangerously. She said she almost hit him head-on when he came into her lane while rounding a curve too fast. When her calls to the sheriff’s department didn’t get the desired response, she called the Georgia State Patrol; troopers began patrolling the neighborhood and strictly enforcing state laws, including one that severely limits the use of golf carts by anyone on public streets. Adult residents who’d driven golf carts in their neighborhood for years with no problem brought their complaints to the commission July 5.

Castellow was instructed to research the law to determine how to resolve the issue.

State law allows personal transportation vehicles (PTVs) to be driven on a street where the speed limit is 25 miles per hour, Castellow said on Tuesday. The current speed limit in Tallokas Trails is 30.

The county already has a procedure where residents of a subdivision can petition for the county to install speed bumps in their neighborhood. Castellow based his PTV proposal on the same framework.

Under the proposal, residents of a subdivision can petition to have the speed limit in their neighborhood reduced to 25 mph for the purpose of allowing golf cart travel.

Commissioners said residents would need one signature per household from 60% of the households in the subdivision. Tallokas Trails residents at Tuesday’s meeting said they’d start immediately and expected to have no trouble getting the required number of signatures.

Commissioner Mike Boyd asked them to do a separate petition for the Tallokas Circle subdivision, which is across Tallokas Road from Tallokas Trails. Residents of both subdivisions had raised concerns about the newly enforced rules on July 5.

Both petitions are likely to be presented at the commission’s Aug. 2 meeting, but the changes are unlikely to stop there. Sheriff Rod Howell told commissioners he’d been approached by residents of Riverwood and Clubview subdivisions about their golf carts as well.

Castellow said even when the county changes the speed limit, the state still requires PTVs to meet certain requirements. He listed them in a memo to county leadership:

• A braking system sufficient for the weight and passenger capacity of the vehicle, including a parking brake.

• A reverse warning device functional at all times when the directional control is in the reverse position.

• A main power switch. When the switch is in the “off” position, or the key or other device that activates the switch is removed, the motive power circuit shall be inoperative. If the switch uses a key, it shall be removable only in the “off” position.

• Head lamps.

• Reflex reflectors.

• Tail lamps.

• A horn.

• A rearview mirror.

• Safety warning labels.

• Hip restraints and hand holds or a combination thereof.

Castellow’s memo also included the definitions of “low speed vehicles” and “all-terrain vehicles” and the rules that allow them to be used on public roads.

Castellow said state law also requires the county government to place signs everywhere state roads enter the county, notifying motorists that PTVs are permitted on some roadways in the county. Cannon, Castellow and Roads and Bridges Superintendent Stan Kirksey are to determine how many of the signs will be needed and where to put them to bring the county into compliance.

Commissioner Marc DeMott pointed out that while the county government sets the speed limits on county roads, it can’t do anything with subdivisions in the City of Moultrie. Residents of those subdivisions will need to reach out to the city government to see if the city council would take similar action.

Coincidentally or not, a city resident addressed that very question to the Moultrie City Council Tuesday night. Guadalupe Alsono had been stopped by a Moultrie police officer while riding with his children around his neighborhood. He asked the city council how to make that neighborhood a “golf-cart friendly neighborhood,” which is the same thing the Tallokas Trails residents were asking for on July 5.

City Manager Pete Dillard said in an interview on Wednesday that the council looked into the matter some years ago and decided not to pursue it. One big concern involves the state’s Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant, or LMIG. 

Dillard said the terms of LMIG mean the state Department of Transportation has input when the city changes the speed limits, even on city-maintained streets. The city receives between $200,000 and $300,000 per year in LMIG money to repair and resurface streets. Dillard said he didn’t know whether the city would lose that money by changing speed limits, but he said, “It’s a risk we didn’t want to take.”