Friday, February 9, 2001
Friday, February 9, 2001 |
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'I don't want to see, hear or smell it' By JOHN MUNFORD
The paving of Sumner Road in Peachtree City will certainly bring the cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles much closer to the back porch of Gale Botwick's home on Hidden Springs. She's willing to live with the widening and paving of the narrow gravel road. But she wants the city to commit to landscaping the area to limit the noise and buffer her yard from the traffic. The covenants in her subdivision prevent her from erecting a privacy fence, so she can't provide her own relief from the impending road. "I don't want to see it, smell it or hear it," Botwick said. Botwick admitted that the noise of gravel shifting under passing vehicles will be gone once the road is paved. But she also anticipates more people will use the road as a shortcut. "It's going to funnel traffic off a major highway," Botwick said, adding that she wished the city had first approached residents about the plans to widen the road. Now, she and other neighbors are getting involved and meeting with city officials to get their questions answered. Botwick's main concern is getting the city to commit to properly landscaping the area and setting aside funds to do so. The paving of Sumner Road is projected to provide relief for residents in the Smokerise area, allowing them to use the stoplight at Sumner Road for access to Ga. Highway 54. But right now, few use the shortcut since it's a gravel road, and that keeps the traffic down, Botwick said. Instead, vehicles from Smokerise follow the paved portion of Sumner Road that hooks up with Hwy. 54 at the Fayette-Coweta EMC building. There's no light there, making it more difficult to get onto Hwy. 54. Botwick's next-door neighbor, Laurel Hart, also is worried about having adequate buffering from Sumner Road once it's paved. Her kids play in the backyard and she wants to make sure her children are safe. "Nobody uses it except for a shortcut. We might get five maybe eight vehicles passing by in the morning," Hart said. Part of the problem with keeping Sumner Road away from Botwick's and Hart's backyards is that the road is located on the edge of Peachtree City. Land to the east of Sumner Road is actually outside of the city limits, and outside the city's jurisdiction, so it can't be moved away from the homes when it's widened and paved. Since the state Department of Transportation has agreed to partially fund the paving, Botwick said the city should have some extra money left over that it can dedicate to landscaping the area and reducing the impact it will have on the area. Hart noted that for any other developer the city would require a landscape plan to be in place before construction. But in this instance, the city isn't playing by its own rules since a landscaping plan hasn't been prepared yet, she added.
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