I attended the Peachtree City Council meeting Jan. 7 when the Mews shopping center was up for discussion, and I must confess I believe the council will regret their decision in turning down an upscale shopping center.

I would say that 75 percent of the citizens present were in favor and gave many good reasons for their views.

A group from Southern Trace, the subdivision off Banks Road, opposite the high school, were the ones opposing it on the basis of great traffic problems and the abuse of the land use plan.

To begin with, the neighboring properties are the cemetery, the Presbyterian church and the Catholic church. The traffic lights are already in so it's most unlikely there could be the gridlock we now have on the intersection of Ga. highways 54 and 74. The Southern Trace people will never get a 250-foot buffer from any other developer and, if I lived there, I'd be concerned about the future of that parcel.

As far as the land use plan, the council just on Dec. 17, 1998, approved a rezoning on Huddleston Road and some property on Ga. Highway 74. In the past year alone I have been present at many rezonings where the citizens objected. This one was denied!

In the Mews project, the land use plan was used as a ruse as one reason to deny the rezoning. Further, the city makes tax concessions to Cooper Lighting to encourage their commitment to the area. In this case, we were to get a very good and attractive project (as stated by city officials) with no tax concessions.

I have been greatly interested in the development of Peachtree City, but as of now I plan to stay home and read about what is already planned for the rest of the city. They will continue to make changes in density to promote someone's financial interests.

Because of a city ordinance city council meetings must close by 11 p.m. and so the decision by council to deny [developer John] Callaway's project was done in the last 10 minutes perhaps they should have tabled it and looked at it more carefully.

On a positive note, the planning commission and the city council always listen to the citizens but unfortunately we never seem to be heard. In essence it seemed as if they listened to the Southern Trace group, but in fact, it was the city that in its infinite wisdom did not want the Mews. It's too bad.

A quote I heard recently: "The place you've moved from is the same place you're moving to."