Faison vows to fight ‘big box’ law

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

The Peachtree City Council Thursday night upheld an October recommendation from the Planning Commission, voting 5-0 to reject plans for a Target store at Kedron Village.

The unanimous denial of Target came after about an hour of orderly, timed debate from three camps: The city, nearby homeowners and the developer.

But it sets up a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the city’s ordinance against “big box” retailers like Target, which the developer has vowed to pursue. The first court date is Monday.

A second round of hearings in the developer’s lawsuit against the city was already scheduled for next week by Fayette County Superior Court Judge Christopher Edwards.

The lead plaintiff, the Faison Co. of Charlotte, N.C., had argued that plans for Kedron Village have always included at least one “big box” store, as shown on plans for that end of town started years before the ordinance was put in place.

City attorneys don’t necessarily disagree to Faison’s claim of “vested rights” to build something at Kedron, but take issue with the size and scope of the rest of the project: An additional 145,000-square feet of stores, restaurants and offices in addition to the 125,000 square foot Target store. That would make the shopping center the city’s largest, easily outstripping The Avenue, and require additional parking for more than 1,100 cars.

Members of the Lake Kedron Homeowners Association have cried that enormity of the retail center would dwarf their neighborhood, and an extension of Regents Park to provide direct access to Target would bring unwanted traffic into their neighorhood.

Thursday night, the highway access issue was really a secondary point.

“If you don’t let us use our property in the way we’re entitled to, we intend to have the courts determine our vested rights,” declared George Rosensweig, lead attorney for Faison. Pathway Communities, which owns the land and is the private development company that originally built Peachtree City, is siding with Faison.

Peachtree City’s law, adopted in 2000, says large chain stores of more than 32,000 cannot locate anywhere in town outside a zone around the intersection of Ga. highways 54 and 74.

The city established the ordinance after community uproar from the decision to allow the nearby Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

A constitutional challenge to the big box ban could have far-reaching implications. In the three years since Peachtree City adopted its law, dozens of communities across the nation have worked to establish similar ordinances.