By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com

Uptown Square, the Barnes & Noble shopping center across Ga. Highway 85 from Fayette Pavilion, continues to give Fayetteville's Planning Commission fits.

And the commission continues to give the center's developers fits.

“We've had more problems with this thing than we did with a million square feet across the street,” said commission member Allan Feldman during an hour of heated discussion last week.

Commissioners voted to ask the City Council to force developers Concordia Partners Inc. to tear out a two-lane exit from the shopping center onto Pine Trail Road and replace it with a one-lane, right-only exit with a concrete lip to prevent anyone using the exit as an entrance, or making a left turn into neighborhoods along Pine Trail.

That exit has been a bone of contention between developers, the city and neighbors during two years of negotiations to bring the shopping center to reality.

Residents fought doggedly to get the city to deny any curb cut on Pine Trail, saying they already face a nightmare trying to leave their neighborhood because of an entrance to Office Depot across the street. But city officials eventually approved the exit, saying the request was not in violation of any city laws.

The exit was supposed to have been constructed to prevent any left turns, with a concrete lip to make it virtually impossible to use it as an entrance, Planning Commission members said, adding that they want the company to return to the original plan.

“Nobody pays any mind to a `do not enter' sign on private property,” said commission member Feldman before making the motion to recommend the change. “It opens up to a very dangerous situation that is really not acceptable,” he added.

The motion passed unanimously.

Residents also have complained that lighting in the shopping center is shining into their neighborhood, and heavy machinery has been cleaning the parking lot late at night in violation of the development agreement.

“We do not want to hear noise over there earlier than 7 o'clock in the morning,” said Linda Bidez, the shopping center's closest neighbor. She also complained that a dumpster enclosure is not in keeping with the development agreement and is unsightly. “This is what I see when I come out the front door,” she said.

Concordia President Kent Rose promised that the problems are going to be smoothed out. “We're not saying this is as good as it gets,” he said, promising to take care of the late night sweeping, the lighting problems and other complaints.

Commissioners also voted 3-1, with Sarah Murphy opposed, to deny the company's request for a change in the approved colors for Linens & Things, the home furnishings store that opened Friday.

The store was painted different colors than those approved as part of the city's development agreement with the company, but Rose assured the commission the mistake was an honest one. The color, he said, “was inadvertently applied in the field at the request of the tenant. There was no intention on our part to circumvent the process,” he said.

Rose asked that the commission allow the company to make some minor changes to make the color more to the commission's liking without completely repainting the store, but commissioners refused.

“I want to see the colors that were in the development agreement,” said commission member Segis “Al” Lipscomb.

City Council probably will discuss the Pine Trail exit at its April 12 work session and April 17 business meeting