The Fayette Citizen-News Page
Friday, January 27, 1999
Pine Trail fight returns to F'ville council tonight

By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

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The stage is set for a show-down tonight and Monday over long-disputed plans for a shopping center at Ga. Highway 85 and Pine Trail Road.

During a work session tonight and its regular business meeting Monday night, Fayetteville City Council will consider Concordia Partners Inc.'s appeal of the city Planning Commission's earlier denial of its development plans for the property.

Both meetings are at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

Earlier this month, council delayed action on Concordia's appeal, urging the company to meet with city staff and refine its plans.

Staff are recommending that the company be required to meet 18 conditions, including building an access road at the front of the project, if council approves the development plan.

But planning staff members are not recommending the one condition that residents of Pine Trail Road have been demanding ever since the project surfaced early in 1998 doing away with a proposed driveway into the shopping center from Pine Trail.

"We don't want our homes to be gridlocked," resident Pat King said Monday during the City Council meeting. King has been at the forefront of efforts to block the Pine Trail entrance.

"We don't want our homes to be devalued," she added.

Concordia has proposed a shopping center anchored by Linens & Things fabric store and Barnes & Noble book store, with a Chili's restaurant occupying an out-parcel at the corner of Pine Trail and 85. The driveway off Pine Trail would directly serve the restaurant, but parking for the restaurant would be tied into parking for the shopping center as a whole.

During negotiations with the city Planning Commission last year, Concordia agreed to build approximately $500,000 worth of improvements to the intersection to help mitigate traffic problems, and company officials insist those improvements will prevent the gridlock that residents are predicting.

City chief planner Jahnee Prince has recommended that the company be required to build a road that would connect the center with a 54-acre commercial site next door to the north, keeping as much traffic as possible off 85, but in meetings thus far Concordia representative Kent Rose has presented plans that show only a connection between parking lots no access road.

Tension has increased during recent meetings as the company has employed a court reporter to record proceedings, often a precursor to filing a lawsuit.

The nine-acre parcel has been the subject of repeated dispute in recent years. Currently occupied by the Fayetteville Church of Christ and three small businesses, the site was earlier targeted for a Wal-Mart Superstore, drawing a storm of protest from Pine Trail residents.

That dispute ended amicably, with Wal-Mart moving across the street to a site at Fayette Pavilion.

The site was placed in a commercial zoning category when it was annexed into the city years ago, and residents say they understand that a shopping center will be developed on the site, but they don't want a curb cut on Pine Trail.

Developers say the Pine Trail curb cut is essential to make the project profitable.


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