Supporters of a proposed 345,000 square foot shopping center in Peachtree City are not finished with the issue and say they are delighted that the City Council may reconsider a needed rezoning at Walt Banks Road and Ga. Highway 54.

Sandra Jungers, a member of the Endowment Committee for the Cultural Arts for Fayette County, says she is "appalled" at the decision made last Thursday to deny rezoning from residential to commercial to join two land tracts for the "village" upscale shopping area to be called "The Mews."

"I have written to City Council," she said, "asking if there is any way possible they can do anything to reconsider." Mayor Robert Lenox confirmed yesterday that there is discussion underway to reopen the "council discussion" portion of the public hearing, and to vote again (see related story).

Jungers spoke last week in favor of the project, not just for its value as a shopping and gathering area, but also to support Callaway's offer of five acres across from McIntosh High School for a cultural center, she said.

"I've been accused of being bought by Mr. Callaway," she said, "But that's not true. The endowment committee went to Paul Heard (one of the property owners) five years ago and asked whether we might be able to work something out to use part of that land for a cultural center."

She said the committee comprises about 175 active families who have worked to promote the arts in Fayette. They helped raise money for auditorium seating at Starr's Mill High School, she said. Jungers envisions a center on the northwest side of the property that would provide classroom space; a place for theater productions; rehearsal rooms for orchestras, choruses or ballets; and possibly museum and gallery space.

"I didn't speak at council to represent the committee," she said, "but as a private citizen. I think this is just an opportunity to have the final pieces of the puzzle for Peachtree City. What we are missing are amenities like this kind of shopping, and a cultural center."

A resident of Peachtree City for only five months, Cele Eifert is not hesitant to say what she thinks. Toward the end of last Thursday's debating, she read from the city's Land Use Plan that the document "is not intended to be an unchanging, final authority" and that it was written to serve the city until the year 2000. She said she thought the plan was about to expire and should be "re-examined in the light of what's across the street" from the proposed Mews development (the Publix shopping center, not within the Peachtree City limits).

Eifert says she has asked city officials whether a city-wide referendum on The Mews would be possible. She was told by the city clerk that the Georgia Secretary of State's office says that rezoning issues are not usually topics for referenda, Eifert says.

"I just can't believe that the citizens have no recourse for a City Council decision," she added.

Developer John Callaway has said that "there is no other location in Peachtree City" that would be suitable for The Mews. The 53-acre tract would be developed as a comprehensive, limited-use commercial plan to include stores like The Gap and Banana Republic, and possibly a Parisian department store.

He also said that for him, reducing the size of The Mews is not an option, because "if you take away the nice sit-down restaurants, the grid streets that create the pedestrian walkways and the village feeling, the room to do the kind of green buffers we have offered, then that's not The Mews."