Wednesday, October 8, 2003

Traffic plans for Target will produce safety hazards

The site plan for the Target store at the Kedron Village Shopping Center foretells a serious traffic hazard. Target's main entrance/exit is planned to be on Georgian Park, directly across from Regent's Park. This will bring heavy traffic to Georgian Park this "village collector" road was never meant to handle, and it will create a dangerous intersection. Worse, it is unprecedented in Peachtree City to put the main entrance/exit for a major shopping center directly across from the only way in or out of five residential neighborhoods.

You know what will happen. With so much traffic on Georgian Park, pedestrians and golf carts will have trouble making it across safely. The older residents of the five neighborhoods adjoining Regent's Park (and those down the street in St. Simon's Cove) will face difficult challenges safely getting into the greatly increased traffic flow.

Young, inexperienced drivers will have problems too. People coming from Target, unfamiliar with the area, will shoot across Georgian Park hoping for a shortcut, only to find they have no way back out but the way they came in. It takes little imagination to envision an ugly parade of bad accidents.

The choice for the entrance/exit to Target is miserable. Our city planners and the developer (Faison, Inc.) should do better than creating such problems. If they won't do better on their own, the city council should tell them to do better, by denying any plan with the entrance where it's now planned.

Development of the Kedron Village shopping center is a good idea, which will bring needed additional shopping to our area. Businesses with lots of green space and large buffers between them and their residential neighbors, consistent with Peachtree City's established historical development ethic are welcome.

But without genuine concern for the nearby residents and citizens of Peachtree City, no developer and no development is worth having. Better choices for the entrance/exit are available, and one should be chosen instead of leaving Target's new neighbors and Peachtree City with this mess.

Van and Susan Vandivier

Peachtree City, Ga.