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Brown urges comm. zoning for church site

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown has been reaching out to residents of the subdivisions adjacent to Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church, where a commercial rezoning for a Walgreens drugstore failed earlier this year.

Just because Walgreens isn’t coming doesn’t mean the church will be there forever, Brown cautions. The property is zoned for office institutional use and church officials have said they plan to move at some point in the future.

Brown said he has met with four or five residents in the surrounding area, making a presentation about what could happen on the property as currently zoned. About four homes on Eden Edge in the Highgreen subdivision would be affected if an office building is built on the site, as there is a small strip of city greenbelt followed by a 10-foot setback for parking and another 10-foot setback from the lot line, Brown said.

If the property is zoned limited use commercial, as was proposed for the Walgreens, the city could require a larger setback to protect those residents, Brown said.

“I don’t want them to go back and say ‘Gosh, a CVS pharmacy would look better than this,’” Brown said, adding he wants residents to think about the “consequences” of leaving the property zoned for office-institutional use.

The church parcel also backs up to residents in the Highlands subdivision.

Brown said of the four or five people he has made the presentation to, most said they only want the church to remain there or keep the property as zoned. Only one person has said they’d go along with a limited use commercial plan, and then only if the neighborhood has a say-so as to what the specific use of the site is.

“A bank may be acceptable, or some other store that’s not a drugstore may be amenable to the residents,” Brown said.

Brown estimates that an office building of about 30,000 square feet could be built on the site as it is currently zoned.

“My main worry about the church site is the neighborhoods are so close by,” Brown said.

The Peachtree Crossing shopping center, just across the street from Christ Our Shepherd, is a prime candidate for redevelopment because of its location and the city’s demographics. Brown said he hasn’t been told any developer is in the process of buying the center, but one developer from the Alpharetta area did call him and ask a lot of questions, he noted.

Brown pointed to the current Wal-Mart and Home Depot shopping center on Ga. Highway 54 West and noted that years before that development was proposed, a smaller shopping center and a smaller number of apartments than currently at the The Summit apartment complex was brought forth in a site plan from another developer, and the smaller plan was turned down.

He hopes to avoid such a problem at the church site by starting a dialogue with residents before a developer submits plans to the city. Brown envisions the possibility of Peachtree Crossings becoming a “lifestyle center” similar to The Avenue at Peachtree City.

“That shopping center is probably not going to remain as it is for much longer,” Brown said. “I’d much rather start talking about these things now.”