Friday, December 5, 2003
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Friday, December 5, 2003 |
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Planners look at west corridor’s potential By J. FRANK LYNCH Peachtree City’s planning director used broad strokes to paint a picture of what the Ga. Highway 54 West corridor could look like one day at an early November meeting of the city’s Planning Commission. Last week, David Rast returned with a fine brush to fill in the details of the Ga. 54 West Overlay District plan. He showed commissioners the exact style of brick, the design of street lamps, the color of awnings, samples of approved signage and the preferred plants for landscaping the stretch of real estate, all in the hopes that private investors will want to redevelop their property accordingly over the next 10 years. If approved by the council, the proposed amendment to the zoning ordinance would create Peachtree City’s first “overlay” district and require that developers adhere to the toughest set of design guidelines ever attempted in the city. A required public hearing on the proposal is on the agenda for Monday’s Planning Commission meeting, 7 p.m. at City Hall. The enormity of the request by Rast — to approve the guidelines so they can move on to consideration by the full City Council — was not lost on commissioners, all volunteer appointees to the board. That proved especially true when Rast explained that the Hwy. 54 West design guidelines are intended to influence future development — and most importantly, redevelopment of the city’s exisitng commercial areas — far into the future. “What we’re hoping to do with these guidelines is evolve them into a set of guidelines for redevelopment throughout the city,” said Rast. As Peachtree City ages and land suitable for development becomes more scarce, it will be natural to reuse exisiting commercial properties for new uses. But many of the city’s oldest retail structures were designed under ordinances that no longer exist or are outdated, Rast explained, and others were built according to the standards established by Pathway Communities, which for years was the Peachtree City Development Corporation. “We have no developer to watch over all these architects and builders to enforce design,” Rast said. “We relied on Pathway for years to serve in that function. “Sooner or later we’re going to be hit with a redevelopment proposal and we want to be prepared.” The guidelines were developed using the recommendations of an advisory board, and early plans were to have that group evolve into one that considers proposals for the overlay district first, before they get to the Planning Commission. Rast said requests for conceptual site plans will continue to follow the same process, as they do now, and come before the commission for approval. Because all the property being considered for the overlay is already zoned commercial, that wouldn’t be a concern of the commission, either. In theory, the design committee would handle the enforcement of the architectural details before that stage. “That hasn’t been part of our job in the past,” said commissioner Wes Saunders. “At what point do we want to get in the process?” Developmental Services Director Clyde Stricklan and Rast both were uncertain that another level of beauracracy is needed, though several on the commission seemed to welcome the extra policing effort that would go into projects. “That seems to be a reasonable amount of oversight to me,” said Saunders. Ray Green suggested that the planning commission would not have to worry about the specifics of plans, if they pass a design review board. “How many times are we going to beat it to death? It seems enough to let it go forward from there.” Stricklin said it was his impression the commissioners would not want to be removed from that process. If so, he wondered if a design review board should be available on call or a standing committee. Commissioner Dennis Payton was firm that a new board be made as official and legally binding as possible. “It this is going to be a group that dictates the look of redevelopment of the city overall, then it doesn’t need to be an ad hoc advisory committee” of volunteers, he said. Rast said using the volunteer committee to create the guidelines made sense, “But the next board needs to have greater accountability.” The commission will take up that issue again Monday night. The full proposal will hopefully be ready for the City Council to consider sometime early next year.
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