The Fayette Citizen-News Page

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

PTC Target foes get DOT to listen, maybe too late

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Peachtree City homeowners who’ve fought a proposed expansion of the Kedron Village retail center since August must have felt like David slaying Goliath last week when they got word that Georgia Department of Transportation officials were willing to consider adding another curb cut off Ga. Highway 74 into the project.

The hope: An additional right-in, right-out access to the Kedron Village off the busy state highway would eliminate the need to create a back entrance into the shopping center off Georgia Park, across from their homes.

But that hope may have been premature. A lawsuit filed against the city by developer Faison Inc. seeking “vested rights” to proceed with the 265,000-square-foot addition, including an access drive at the intersection of Georgia Park and Regents Park, will have a court hearing on Tuesday in Fayetteville, regardless.

Not only is there little that can be done at this point to halt the legal challenge, said City Manager Bernard McMullen, Faison has shown little interest in considering any traffic options other than the one original proposed when Kedron Village’s master plan was laid out more than a decade ago.

To lessen traffic on Peachtree Parkway and Hwy. 74, shoppers will be funneled in and out of the shopping village via an extension of Regents Park, which bisects Georgia Park behind a present grove of trees.

But in the time since the roads were originally designed, 250 upscale homes have been built along Regents Park opposite the site where Target and four or five other “mid-sized” retailers plan to locate.

The traffic access is one of two key issues lawyers hope to settle next week, but city officials have already said they do not intend to challenge Faison on the right to complete the intersection.

The other concern is Faison’s claim that limitations imposed by the city’s so-called “Big Box Ordinance” do not apply to the Target site, because the Minneapolis-based company will in fact own its building, rather than lease. The city’s code uses language that suggests limitations on “leases” to large retailers.

“They claim the big box ordinance does not apply,” said City Attorney Ted Meeker. “But we don’t buy that.”

Also at issue is a letter written by then-Mayor Bob Lenox in 2000 assuring the developer that the ordinance wouldn’t apply to the Kedron project. That letter has no legal weight, Meeker said, because Lenox did not have the authority to offer a “grandfathering” of the site.

Just since the first of the year, the members of the Lake Kedron Community Association convinced state Rep. Lynn Westmoreland and state Sen. Mitch Seabaugh to intervene. The lawmakers arranged a meeting with DOT officials and determined that an additional turn-lane headed north was feasible.

A hasty meeting with McMullen and homeowners in early February proved positive, but McMullen indicated that there were still many concerns to address before the highway cut could be considered a serious alternative.

“The city recognizes that this is a very sensitive issue,” McMullen wrote in a letter to the homeowners’ group. “Both a willing developer and willing citizen participation is critical to successful implementation.”

But since the meeting, McMullen has indicated that Faison is not interested in a compromise.

“My understanding about the DOT’s role was that if a proposal were to come forward that was agreeable to all parties, the state would would look at it,” McMullen said. “But there was no decision reached that was satisfactory.”

Fayette Superior Court Judge Chris Edwards is scheduled to hear the opening arguments from both sides in the lawsuit Tuesday morning at the county justice center in Fayetteville.