Resolving lighting problems at Peachtree City Christian Church is not as easy as turning then off or reducing the bulb wattages, the Peachtree City Planning Commission discovered this week.

City planners, church members and a representative of Coweta-Fayette EMC have met to discuss the tall-pole lighting, but neighbors say that wattage reduction and turning off two sets of lights near the Pinegate subdivision have not reduced the glare in the neighborhood.

Jim Dressler, speaking for the church, told the commission that "we want to resolve this and do what's right, but we need your help." He noted that the city asked the EMC to provide photometric studies and to shorten the height of the light poles on the parking lot, but said that EMC has not complied. Dressler added that he thought the EMC representative in the latest meeting "did not have the authority to make a decision."

EMC owns the lights and poles and has a 10-year lease with the church for operation.

City development services director Jim Williams said that the city should not be "put in the middle" between the church and EMC. Until the church can meet with the appropriate people at EMC, he said, all lights on the property nearest the residences should be turned off.

"That's okay with us," Dressler said, "as long as someone from the city comes to see how dark a hole that leaves in our parking lot lighting." Dressler said that since EMC has not responded to the city's April letter, the city should take its request to them again. No one has yet given any cost figures on what it would cost to shorten or replace the poles, Dressler said.

A Dec. 3, 1996, letter from the city to Ashford Engineers Inc. notes that the final site plans for the church were approved , but one of the conditions was that "site lighting needs to be 150 wattage."

A letter written by City Planner David Rast to Coweta-Fayette EMC in April of this year says that the proposed lighting plan called for 13 400-watt high-pressure sodium fixtures on 30-foot poles.

"We are very concerned about the intensity of this proposed plan," Rast's letter says. Because the site is bordered on three sides by residential property, he continues, "it is imperative that the site lighting be kept to a minimum."

Rast's letter also says that "we would prefer that the proposed lighting plan be revised to reflect 250-watt (maximum) fixtures mounted on 16'-20' poles ... also, if photometrics are available, please submit these for our review." Dressler has reported to the commission that the wattage already has been reduced from 400 to 250, but said that EMC "does not have shorter poles in stock."