Friday, January 23, 2004
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Friday, January 23, 2004 |
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City moving on Hwy. 54 West development By J. FRANK LYNCH Construction will begin within a few weeks on three commercial structures already approved along Ga. Highway 54 West, now that the Peachtree City Council has given its formal endorsement to a new set of design guidelines for the future of the corridor. After a series of meetings with the city’s Planning Commission that stirred little interest, City Planner David Rast was happy to see a room full of curious residents when the council held a workshop session to discuss the proposal on Jan. 15. Immediately afterward, the council voted to approve the 30-page document as long as it was understood that any the guidelines could not be applied elsewhere in town without going back before the council for approval. A Tires Plus retail outlet and a Washington Mutual branch office will flank a third building housing several unnamed “upscale” eateries planned for the graded land along the north side of Hwy. 54, from the Chevron convenience store to McDuff Parkway. And more projects are waiting in the wings, said Doug McMurrain, project coordinator for RAM Development, which built Home Depot and Wal-Mart and owns most of the commercial parcels north of the highway. A number of private owners hold rights to the land south of Hwy. 54, but none of them expressed serious opposition to having he guidelines imposed on future use of their property, Rast said. Likewise, there was little criticism from residents about establishing an “overlay” district for about 1,000 acres west of Hwy. 74 and north of Clover Reach to the city limits above Wynnmeade. The district “overlays” the existing zoning for the area but provides much more detailed regulations about what development can look like, right down to the shade of brick used for accents to the type of lighting and color of awnings. Rast described the purpose of the guidelines as filling the gap left when Peachtree City Development Corporation, now known as Pathway Communities, backed away from wholesale development of large sections of the city 10 years ago. For years, PCDC was trusted to conceive of development and enforce design concepts as it best saw fit, with council approval. But no such “father figure” has existed for about a decade, and as the city nears build-out, individual land owners have had freedom to develop or redevelop their property however they liked, as long as the plans were within city ordinances. Rast told the crowd that the guidelines are intended to help steer development along the heavily traveled highway toward something more efficient, attractive and appropriate than what is there now: A hodgepodge that includes automotive businesses, big-box retailers, a storage facility, the entrance to the city’s Tennis Center, the Days Inn motel and a church. The plan was developed over a period of about two years with the help of a voluntary citizen’s advisory group, made up largely of residents of the Planterra Ridge and Wynnmeade sections of town who were recognized at the meeting last week as well. RAM has a contract pending to buy about seven more acres from Line Creek Baptist Church, which is relocating to Coweta County. A church secretary said the church continues to wait for the state Department of Transportation to complete final right of way negotiations before the deal can be signed. Commercial redevelopment along the highway is proposed to coincide with the four-lane expansion of the strip of highway, from Hwy. 74 across the county line. Another widening project got under way on the Coweta County side last week, with the DOT clearing right of way for Hwy 34 from Fisher Road to Thomas Crossroads.
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