Sumner Road residents in PTC want city to leave it unpaved for safety, tranquility

Lenox: "We're going to have people hauling butt up and down that road"

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

The scheduled paving of Sumner Road one of Peachtree City's last unpaved roads is being questioned by homeowners in the area.

At its meeting Thursday night, the City Council was presented with a plan to change the road design to save more trees when it is paved. However, several residents questioned whether the road needed to be paved at all.

Council tabled the matter so staff could present more information before a final decision is made. Councilman Robert Brooks was particularly concerned about narrowing the road since it might have to handle more traffic in the future when it hooks up to a planned connector road.

City Engineer Troy Besseche told council that more trees could be saved along Sumner Road if a smaller "clear zone" were used. But that will likely cost the city $70,000 that the Georgia Department of Transportation was going to contribute to the project since the DOT wants larger clear zones for safety reasons.

A curb and gutter system would help keep vehicles off the road and the speed limit should be kept at 20 miles per hour for safety concerns, Besseche said.

Brooks said he has received a number of phone calls from residents about the plan to pave Sumner Road. Some don't want it paved and others wonder why it has taken the city so long to pave it, he said.

Lenox pointed out that a 20-mph speed would render the police department unable to enforce that speed with its radar equipment.

"We're going to have people hauling butt up and down that road," Lenox said.

Besseche said some traffic calming measures, including speed humps, could be employed to slow vehicles down.

Councilwoman Carol Fritz said she wanted to wait to make a final decision because she wanted to see how it would affect the residents along Sumner Road.

Sumner Road resident Cele Eifert said paving the road would result in fewer trees, which buffer nearby residents from noise and pollution caused by vehicles.

Phyllis Aguayo suggested that the road could be "split" at certain areas to slow down traffic and construct the road around special trees.

Sumner Road resident Lynn Notti said paving the road would speed up traffic on the road, which currently moves at 10 to 15 mph.

Besseche said work on the paving was stopped when it was realized that the road's path would result in the cutting down of several "specimen" trees. The project is expected to resume in January, but City Manager Jim Basinger said he thought waiting until the first council meeting of the year wouldn't halt the project unnecessarily.

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