For . . .

I attended the planning commission meeting Monday night, Dec. 14, 1998, in which the Mews proposal on Walt Banks Road and Ga. Highway 54 was discussed. Some of the points that were made gave me great concern.

On the one hand, I heard [Peachtree City planning director Jim] Williams indicate that he favored another large shopping center project be developed at the intersection of Ga. highways 54 and 74 this in addition to the huge project under construction next to Pike's Nursery.

In the afternoon, it's nearly impossible to take a left out of the post office. By 5 p.m. the intersection is nearly at gridlock. This is even before the buildings under construction now have even opened for business and we're supposed to add another big shopping center? What can he be thinking?

He said the reason for his position was because the 30-year-old Master Land Use Plan called for it. But surely when the roads have ceased to function and we're looking at gridlock it's time to consider changing the plan. How is the industrial park supposed to function when the trucks can't get to the interstates, and when the workers can't get through to their jobs?

How is a new shopping center supposed to stay in business if people can't get to it? If people from other parts of Fayette County come as customers to this shopping center in order to support the stores, aren't they all going to have to get through the intersection of 54/74 to do so? Are there plans for massive roadwork to fix the problems at this intersection, or are we just kind of hoping that the Master Land Use Plan will somehow solve the problems without planning?

As far as the property on Walt Banks Road goes, it sounds like the same approach wait and see and hope for the best. Instead of endorsing the Mews plan which gives lots of architectural and size controls and gets the traffic off Walt Banks Road and over on Hwy. 54 where it belongs, Mr. Williams seems to believe that the best approach is to stick with the current zoning, which dumps all the traffic on Walt Banks Road, and hope for the best.

When asked by one of the commissioners if there were any restrictions at all on the size of what could be built under the current zoning on the property, Mr. Williams admitted that there were not. With parking decks it sounds like you could build Fayette Pavilion on the site!

If a new and upscale project is going to come to Peachtree City, which I think would be great for us all, it would seem to me that it would be much better if it were located in a place like the intersection of Hwy. 54 and Walt Banks Road where Hwy. 54 can handle the traffic and where the customers aren't going to have to travel completely through Peachtree City to get to it.

Dispersing these projects around is much better than forcing them all into one place where gridlock is sure to result. Once we reach that point and it looks like we already have at 54/74 there's just no correcting it. Good planning is not about protecting plans, it's about anticipating problems.

I think it's time we use a little forward planning before it's too late it's already too late for the intersection of highways 74/54. And if it means changing the Master Land Use Plan in order to save the city, for goodness sake, let's change it!

Paula Eubanks
Peachtree City

Against . . .

On Dec. 14 the Peachtree City Planning Commission voted against the proposed rezoning at Walk Banks Road and Ga. Highway 54. Congratulations to the planning commission for taking the position that protects the land use plan of Peachtree City!

This proposed rezoning request is now scheduled for consideration by the Peachtree City Council on Jan. 7. The council should vote to turn down the request as the planning commission did, therefore protecting the land use plan and the citizens of Peachtree City.

Why is the land use plan such an important issue? Because the property at Walt Banks Road and Hwy. 54 has been litigated, a particularly significant legal precedent has been established. Due to the litigation, changing the land use plan at this location has an even great impact than just a zoning change. This change would open the door for future lawsuits around Peachtree City that might be lost, resulting in uncontrolled commercial development, loss of integrity in the land use plan and eventually a mess like other cities around Atlanta experience.

Without even considering the litigation issues this zoning request would result in the most significant zoning exception ever made in Peachtree City. By granting this request land available in Peachtree City for commercial development would increase by 50 percent over the existing total.

Traffic patterns would be dramatically effected. The square footage requested by the developer would be about one-half the size of the Fayetteville Pavilion. The Fayetteville Pavilion is serviced by major four-lane roads and still has lots of traffic. Let's say you live on Robinson Road and take Walt Banks Road coming home at the end of the day. How long would your wait to travel Walt Banks Road, cross Hwy. 54 and continue to Robinson Road be when all the shoppers clog the road?

If you live on Blue Smoke, Peachtree Parkway, or other roads nearby you will be affected. Traffic will flow from Tyrone, Peachtree City, and other locations through Walt Banks Road over to the shopping center. Also the shopping center would draw additional traffic from Fayetteville that would not normally be in Peachtree City, further jamming up our traffic.

Besides the land us plan and traffic there is another concern that many citizens should have. McIntosh High School would be across the street from the largest shopping center in Peachtree City. The congestion, crime, and other undesirable factors will have a definite negative impact on the high school. This is a concern that has always been a consideration when this property was requested for rezoning.

What about the alternative? Doesn't the developer have the right to put stores where the existing land is zoned commercial? Certainly, this was a part of the compromise the city reached with the developer and defended at taxpayers expense in 1995 and prior years. The owner (Palm Beach) has existing commercial property rights which were defined by the compromise reached many years ago. The compromise is just that, an agreement as currently defined, no less, but certainly no more. Palm Beach comes back to the well every two or three years to see if Peachtree City really means business when it comes to land use plans. The citizens of Peachtree City and the city council need to deliver the message one more time!

Norm Moore