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PTC Target architecture gets tentative approval

Must include side window, two awnings on front or go back to council

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

In the never-ending battle against chain stores using architecture for branding purposes, Peachtree City has just about scored a victory with the design plans for the Target store coming to the Kedron Village retail center.

The game isn’t over yet, as the council approved Target’s architectural plan conditionally, so long as the company agrees to add a second display window to the right side of the store and awnings to two of the three display windows on the front near the entrance.

If Target doesn’t agree, however, council’s conditional approval will be void and the whole dance starts over again.

With a pergola just to the left of the store entrance and other features to “break up” the front view, there’s little but the familiar red Target bulls-eye to identify the store, based on the drawings submitted by developer Faison Enterprises.

But the hang-up over the window on the right and the front awnings took center stage at Thursday night’s council meeting, setting off a difference of opinion between several council members and Faison representative Mike Cohn.

Both sides haggled over the transcript of their last meeting, when council gave input to the first version of the architectural plans.

At one point, Councilman Murray Weed threatened to take the issue back to court.

“I don’t want to go back to court over one window, but then again, we are the litigious types,” Weed said.

Cohn said the company’s position was that it had made all the changes to its architecture drawings that had been requested by council at the previous meeting.

“Our position is that we’ve done exactly everything that’s been asked of us and more than has been asked of us,” Cohn said.

After more back and forth, council adjourned into closed session because the Target plan is still in active litigation.

The issue heads back to Fayette County Superior Court unless all of Target’s development plans are ultimately approved by the city according to a settlement agreement entered in the case.

Faison had sued the city for originally denying the conceptual site plan for the store.

At the outset of Thursday’s meeting, Mayor Steve Brown announced he had met with some citizens who have architectural design experience and he wanted them to share some further ideas for Target.

But that bid was shot down quickly by Councilwoman Judi-ann Rutherford, who argued that Target has had plenty of input from council on architectural changes.

Cohn contended that Faison wanted to make sure its future meetings were in public and not behind closed doors, but he acknowledged that Brown tried to call him the day before the meeting, ostensibly to give a heads-up on the new suggestions from the citizen’s group the mayor worked with.

“I don’t want to say we were blind-sided, but that was one day’s notice,” Cohn said.