By MONROE ROARK
Staff Writer

The bell sounds tomorrow night for the next round of the ongoing fight to stem the traffic tidal wave on Ga. highways 54 and 74 in western Peachtree City.

The City Council has scheduled a public hearing during its regular meeting to consider such options as a traffic impact ordinance and a building moratorium for the traffic-choked corridor.

Officials from the Georgia Department of Transportation were on hand for a City Council meeting last month to spell out the situation for possible improvements, and the news was mostly bad. Due to federal air regulations and litigation to stop road widening all around metro Atlanta, the widening of Hwy. 54 is now projected for completion in 2008, several years later than first expected.

Meanwhile, an avalanche of development is either on the drawing board or already underway west of Hwy. 74, including:

” The Avenue shopping center at City Circle, on the south side of Hwy. 54, having already seen most of the preliminary work completed and ready for construction to begin;

” Line Creek Parkway, for which some grading has been done, with several commercial outparcels as well as possibly 400 apartments and 200 homes planned along a quarter-mile stretch;

” And most recently, a proposal for a Wal-Mart superstore and a Home Depot directly across Hwy. 54 from Planterra Way, bordered on the west by the proposed apartments and on the east by the railroad tracks, which prevent any access from Hwy. 74.

The city has retained Dames and Moore, a traffic consulting firm, to prepare a traffic model for the corridor and develop standards for evaluating the impact of future development projects. Dames and Moore has already conducted a traffic study on behalf of Cousins Properties for the Avenue project, and much of that information was shared at the recent City Council meeting during earlier traffic discussions.

City staff and consultants have already met with Georgia Regional Transportation Authority officials in an effort to speed up needed improvements. Follow-up discussions also have been held with state DOT leaders and members of the Atlanta Regional Commission in recent weeks.

An outline for a traffic impact ordinance has been prepared and will be presented to the City Council tomorrow night. If adopted, it would apply to all new projects or additions to existing projects along the Hwy. 54 corridor, as well as any other projects in the city that would have a significant impact on the corridor.

All projects not declared exempt under specific parameters outlined in the ordinance would be required to have a traffic impact study prepared prior to final site plan approval. The elements required in the traffic study would be spelled out in the ordinance.

Once the study is plugged into the city's new traffic model, if it does not meet established standards, the consultants would recommend possible mitigation. If the applicant were unable to meet that, then the city would withhold building permits until standards are met.

City staff recommends that the council adopt the ordinance rather than impose a building moratorium, which it says “is perceived as a totally negative approach.”

Council is also being encouraged to take action regarding projects already in the development process but for which permits have not yet been issued. While not wanting to delay the process any more than absolutely necessary, city staff recommends that the council urge these developers to get traffic studies done as quickly as possible so that the steps outlined previously can be applied to their projects as well as new ones.

Other items on tomorrow night's agenda include:

” A bid proposal for city property/casualty insurance, tabled from the last meeting;

” A public hearing on a proposed rezoning of a tract on Clover Reach from LI (limited industrial) to LUC (limited use commercial);

” A public hearing on a proposed variance for lot 143 in Fairfield, which would allow the owner to construct a 16- by 10-foot addition on the rear of the house, encroaching into the established setback (city staff recommends denial);

” Possible updating of the Master Recreation Plan; and

” Consideration of the Peachtree City Water and Sewer Authority's proposed operating budget ($2.6 million) and Capital Improvement Plan ($3.5 million) for the upcoming fiscal year. City Council approval is required for the CIP.