Wednesday, February 28, 2001

Some recent developments with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) have caused me to make this urgent appeal for your assistance. I will attempt to lay the argument before you in short form and ask that you take the 15 minutes necessary to make a difference in our community. These recent events are significant so please act immediately.

The Wal-MartGa.-Highway-54 mitigation plan was passed in a very covert fashion at the Nov. 2, 2000. Peachtree City Council meeting. Up until 20 minutes prior to the meeting, city staff had recommended denial of the Wal-Mart appeal. Two city council members voted against the appeal, stating that they had not been given a chance to review any data regarding the last-minute plan that was introduced. In addition, neither the city's traffic consultant nor the city attorney that facilitated the behind-the-scenes deal were present at the city council meeting to answer questions.

The Feb. 16, 2001, Citizen Review reported that the nearly complete The Avenue retail center on Hwy. 54 was denied approval of a traffic signal by GDOT. It appeared that the previously approved traffic signal in conjunction with the Wal-Mart mitigation plan would have caused too much of a traffic burden on the corridor.

GDOT Traffic Operations Engineer Marion Waters stated, "If somebody has to wait on a secondary road, so be it." Now why would GDOT support the notion that it is acceptable for current and nearly completed businesses to suffer at the hands of a gigantic Wal-Mart store yet to be developed?

Police officers were going to be used to direct traffic at The Avenue-Market Place Boulevard intersection. However, in an official memo from City Planner David Rast (dated Feb. 20, 2001) it states, "The police chief has indicated that neither the city police department nor the county sheriff will be permitted on Hwy. 54 to direct traffic into or out of this development. This is due to the high volumes of traffic on Hwy. 54 and in consideration of safety issues for traffic control personnel."

In the official city newsletter (The Update) Mayor Bob Lenox stated, "In late October the developer's engineer submitted a design proposal that our engineer, after thorough analysis and testing, assured us would meet the requirements of the Traffic Impact Ordinance."

The Mayor went on to say, "Council members Brooks and Fritz and I felt that, despite any personal opinions we held on the matter, our traffic engineer's findings and the approval presented from the DOT, under the rule of law, left no choice but to grant the appeal and, in essence, approve the Wal-Mart."

The city's traffic engineer made an analysis based upon a computer model that incorporated a traffic signal at The AvenuesMarket Place Boulevard that was connected via fiber optics down the highway corridor beyond the Hwy. 74­54 intersection eastward. I learned after speaking with GDOT engineer Keith Rohling that his "approval" was made based upon nothing more than basic sketches of the site and absolutely no traffic data.

Obviously, the model that supposedly allowed for the Wal-Mart is now corrupted. The traffic conditions used to approve the Wal-Mart are no longer valid.

At this point, only Mayor Lenox and Council member Carol Fritz can recall the previous vote and call for a new vote. Hopefully, they will remember the mayor's statement in the Update, "Had you not elected us, some perhaps all of us would have been in the audience on Nov. 2 to protest [along with those against the Wal-Mart mitigation plan]."

If you want this situation handled for the public good, please do the following: Call the GDOT Office of Communications (404-656-5267) and have them notify GDOT Commissioner Tom Coleman and GDOT-Thomaston District Engineer Glenn Durance that we do not want our health, safety and welfare compromised by their desire to accommodate a Wal-Mart store. Let them know that the Wal-Mart developer must abide by our Traffic Impact Ordinance and that our current businesses in that area should not be allowed to suffer.

Commissioner Coleman states on the GDOT website that he is "committed to a safe, efficient and sustainable transportation system for all users" (www.dot.state.ga.us). Remind them that the Wal-Mart plan is neither safe, efficient nor sustainable.

E-mail our councilmembers, Carol Fritz (cfritz@peachtree-city.org), Dan Tennant (DanTennantPTC@aol.com) and Mayor Bob Lenox (blenox@cfcmail.com) to let them know that we want another vote on the Wal-Mart mitigation plan. They need to know that current situation is a threat to our health, safety and property values. Please copy your correspondence to GDOT engineer Keith Rohling (keith.rohling@dot.state.ga.us).

Steve Brown

Peachtree City

Steve_ptc@juno.com

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