By MONROE ROARK
Staff Writer

The county's largest developer is suing Fayette's largest city in a traffic dispute — a big traffic dispute.

Pathway Communities, Inc., once known as Peachtree City Development Corp., charges that a newly enacted Peachtree City ordinance meant to control mounting traffic volumes on the city's west side infringes illegally on Pathway's rights as a property owner in that area.

Roughly 12 hours after its adoption last Thursday night, the revised Peachtree City traffic impact ordinance received its first official court challenge.

Pathway and Peachtree City Holdings LLC filed a lawsuit Friday morning in Fayette County Superior Court against the city, Mayor Bob Lenox, and the four City Council members — Robert Brooks, Carol Fritz, Annie McMenamin and Jim Pace — that “challenges the legality and constitutionality” of the ordinance, according to official court records.

Attorney George Rosenzsweig, who represents the plaintiffs in the suit, stated in court records that the city was placed on notice each time the traffic ordinance was considered for a vote. He wants the court to declare the ordinance unconstitutional and invalid, and prohibit the city from enforcing it.

The ordinance was originally adopted Oct. 7 with a 4-1 vote (Pace voting against) and a revised version passed last Thursday with a 4-0 vote (Pace abstained).

The ordinance sets specific guidelines for those bringing new development to Peachtree City, requiring traffic studies for any proposed development along the Ga. Highway 54 corridor between Ga. Highway 74 and the Coweta County line. Developers could then face certain mitigation requirements before permits are issued. That might mean scaling back a planned development or even delaying it until more road capacity is built. Currently, all of Fayette is under a federal clean air ban on building any new or expanded state and federal roads.

The council action is an attempt to stem the rising tide of traffic congestion in the corridor, since federal environmental concerns have stopped any new road improvements for an indefinite period of time.

Rosenzsweig, who stated his opposition for the record at a public hearing concerning the ordinance, charges in the lawsuit that the ordinance constitutes the taking of property without just compensation, in violation of the Fifth Amendment, as well as the taking of property without due process of law and a lack of equal protection under the law, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Pathway is the renamed major developer of Peachtree City, and in the past two decades has been responsible for planning much of the 15,000-acre city and naming most of its streets and subdivisions. With the city nearing build-out and with relatively little residential property as yet undeveloped, Pathway has expanded its large-development expertise to Coweta and Henry counties, where it currently has big residential projects underway.

Peachtree City officials have not commented on the suit, currently under review.