Friday, June 10, 2005

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Wieland still working on PTC annexation try

Company would extend MacDuff Parkway to Hwy. 74 for traffic relief

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Officials for John Wieland Homes are working on a markedly less dense annexation proposal for a 360-acre tract north of its Centennial neighborhood in Peachtree City.

The company is looking at having 360 single-family lots, working out to one per acre, said Vice President Dan Fields. The company originally proposed 750 lots for the 360-acre tract and an adjoining 88-acre parcel that’s already in the city limits, but the proposal was trimmed after several council members indicated that was too big a proposal density-wise.

Wieland officials are now calculating how much it will cost to extend MacDuff Parkway to Ga. Highway 74, which residents in the area have clamored for as relief to the often-choked traffic on Ga. Highway 54, particularly during drive time.

The road would require an at-grade railroad crossing just before it reaches Hwy. 74.

The only way in and out for residents in the area to get to their homes is Hwy. 54. Several months ago, a gas leak near Home Depot on a weekday afternoon required traffic to be shut down completely in the area, and it took residents hours to get home.

Recent changes to the traffic pattern to accommodate the widening of Hwy. 54 West to four lanes have also increased traffic delays.

Fields said the MacDuff extension, which would line up on Hwy. 74 with the southern entrance to Kedron Drive, would be one lane and have traffic calming measures in an attempt to discourage cut-through traffic. Wieland officials are looking at what the requirements would be for the south Kedron Drive area as well.

The Georgia Department of Transportation has been helpful in working on the plans, Fields said.

Fields noted that the company gets at least one call a day asking when MacDuff Parkway will be extended to Hwy. 74.

Peachtree City officials have put $280,000 aside for engineering a possible extension of MacDuff Parkway.

John Wieland Homes is also undertaking a marketing study for the property and wants to make sure the proposed project “would add value to Peachtree City,” Fields said.

The previous annexation proposal was developed with input from citizens at several meetings hosted by the company, and Fields said it was an ideal plan, “which we felt was beneficial for everybody, but council didn’t see it that way.”

Fields said at the time if the rezoning was approved, the company would immediately begin work to extend MacDuff Parkway to Hwy. 74. Preparing that proposal was a nine-month process, and John Wieland Homes has spent thousands of dollars and many hours in meetings trying to create a workable proposal for a rezoning.

The 360-acre tract Wieland owns that is currently in the unincorporated county was part of a larger annexation proposal studied, but ultimately voted down, by the City Council in August 2000. The land’s previous owner, Pathway Communities, unsuccessfully fought the county in court to change the zoning to a minimum lot size of one acre.

The parcel borders Line Creek, and Wieland officials have said they want to have the subdivision sewered to protect the creek, which would serve the proposed Lake McIntosh reservoir.