After more than a year of meetings and negotiations, a Barnes & Noble bookstore is coming to Ga. Highway 85 at Pine Trail Road.

"You already had your minds made up!" shouted an angry resident Monday night after City Council unanimously approved a complex set of legal documents allowing Concordia Partners Inc. to develop a nine-acre shopping center on the site.

Residents of Huntington Court subdivision have attended monthly meetings starting early in 1998, some fighting the concept of any shopping center on the site, others insisting that the city deny any plans for a driveway into the shopping center from their residential street.

But the land, formerly occupied by the Fayetteville Church of Christ, has been in a commercial zone since 1972, before the subdivision was developed, city officials said. In such a high-traffic area, there was no question that the land would hold a shopping center... the only questions were when and how much, officials said.

In December, the city Planning Commission denied Concordia's development plan for some 79,000 square feet of shopping anchored by Barnes & Noble and Linens 'N Things home furnishings store, with a 5,500-sq. ft. Chili's restaurant.

The firm appealed to City Council, which put the ball back into Concordia's court by directing the firm to negotiate with adjoining property owners to develop a plan for a frontage road, traffic light and other improvements linking the properties.

The result will be better traffic flow on Hwy. 85, councilmen said.

Concordia agreed to meet 18 conditions imposed by the city's planning staff in its final development plan, including the frontage road and traffic light, plus providing extra turn lanes on Pine Trail Road, a masonry wall across the back of the shopping center, a 75-foot wooded buffer across the back, an exit-only driveway on Pine Trail, a 30-foot planted buffer along Hwy. 85 and a 20-foot buffer on Pine Trail.

The firm also promised to donate to the city a home that it purchased next door to the development as an additional buffer.

"What we have in front of us is a pretty darned good piece of work," said Councilman Al Hovey-King before making the motion to approve the plan Monday. "I don't think that there could have been a better agreement than the one we have in front of us.

"We are trying to minimize the impact on the Pine Trail community as well as minimize the traffic impact on Hwy. 85," Hovey-King added.

Residents emotionally disagreed. "I think it's wrong. I think you know it's wrong," said resident Duncan Padgett. "We are helpless to do anything about it."

"It's not going to preserve the residential nature of Fayette County. It's going to be an insult to the neighborhood," said Pat King, who has attended virtually every meeting on the project.

"I guess I'll have to sell out and move," said Glenn Blackston following the vote. "I'll have to. Traffic is going to increase and we're going to have more crime." He said he regretted some of the shouting by other residents, but added, "You fight for what you believe in."

Concordia president Kent Rose, who also has attended most of the meetings, said he hopes to begin construction within 30 to 45 days. "I'm happy with the plan we wound up with," said Rose. "I'm glad we could work with the city on a friendly basis instead of something adversarial," he added, calling the agreement "a true compromise."

In addition to the extra buffers and restrictions, the firm gave up about 12,000 square feet of retail space from its original plan for the development, Rose said.

The next big commercial development for Fayetteville is waiting in the wings. Concordia's plan is coordinated with a plan by a group of owners of 54 acres to the north, all zoned commercial. Marvin Isenberg, one of the principals involved in the "Promenade" plan, said recently that owners hope to change the zoning for part of the property, to develop apartments, with shops and restaurants near Hwy. 85 and the apartments to the rear.