Wednesday, April 25, 2001
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Wednesday, April 25, 2001 |
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Mayor misled PTC residents: There is no DOT approval for Hwy. 54 traffic Many Peachtree City constituents (myself included) are yearning for some integrity and openness. Back on Nov. 2, 2000, the city's Director of Developmental Services, Jim Williams, informed the largest crowd I have ever witnessed at a city council meeting that the Wal-Mart traffic mitigation plan had received the approval of the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT). There was no official approval by GDOT. Mayor Lenox led us to believe that we had official GDOT approval by saying, "Councilmembers Brooks, 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" (PTC Update, Jan. 2001). Here we are in April of 2001 and we might finally see some movement towards authentic approval. We have watched over the past six months an almost comical show mismanagement and misinformation. First, the only two people from the city to sign off on the "approved" plan were the city attorney and the city's traffic consultant and they were not present at the council meeting for questioning. Second, GDOT expressed a desire to pull the plug on the traffic signal at The Avenues. Previously in 1999 GDOT stated that they would not remove the traffic signal at Huddleston Road (Be very wary of that promise, Huddleston Road small business owners!). A little kicking and screaming and The Avenues got the signal back. The developer of The Avenue signed an agreement with the city that stated that they would perform several road mitigation projects, erect the infamous traffic signal and link a long line of signals with fiber optic technology before they could gain a certificate of occupancy. We can assume that development agreements are made to be broken. It was the exact same situation with the Summit Apartments across the street. Third, the GDOT has made some very significant changes to the Wal-Mart mitigation plan. GDOT Engineer Marion Waters stated that the proposed "'through lanes' are forbidden to keep Atlanta's air quality statistics in check"(Citizen, April 20). This is the exact point that I tried in vain to make to the city council in 1999 and 2000. Obviously, we no longer have the same mitigation plan and we never had official GDOT approval so Councilmember Fritz or Mayor Lenox should recall the matter before the city council (only members on the winning side of the vote can recall such things). Will they do it? Keep in mind that we are speaking of the same mayor that stated at the April 19 city council meeting that even if his constituents voted against the bond issues that he would still go ahead with some of the projects! He alluded that he had no problem telling us what we needed and implementing it also. I cannot help but wonder if the mayor will cite the city's archaic master plan (the one that called for 70,000 residents and skyscrapers) as the reason for justifying the projects as he did with the big box stores. Most of the decisions regarding the Wal-Mart project have been made outside of the public forum in some far-off back room. Let's be in favor of openness in government and let's also be for preserving our quality of life. Steve Brown Peachtree City Steve_ptc@juno.com
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