Monday, Nov. 22, could be a turning point in our city's future. On that evening at 7 p.m. at City Hall, the Peachtree City Planning Commission will meet to review the site plan for the Home Depot store which is planned for Ga. Highway 54, just west of the ga. Highway 74 intersection.

You have all seen the typical “big box retailers” like Home Depot in other cities. You can look no further than Newnan or Fayetteville to see this big, unsightly “boxes,” and the negative impact they have on traffic flow. In both of those instances you have four-lane highways outside the center of the city. In Peachtree City, the development is planned along a congested two-lane highway near the busiest intersection in town.

You may have read the letter written by the Huddleston family (The Citizen, Nov. 17) imploring us to just let them sell their property and not try to stand in their way.

Our choice is this, should we be more concerned about one family being able to make millions by selling their “family farm,” or should we instead worry about our city and its future? The family waxed poetically about how wonderful Peachtree City once was, then they make it clear they want to move ahead with a development that will help destroy our city's quality of life.

This development is just the opening shot in a war that could forever change the face of our city. If you don't want to see big box retailers all along our highways; if you don't want to see traffic gridlock on our roads; if you want to protect the quality of life in our city, now is the time to step forward.

Concerned citizens need to fill the council chambers on Monday night to make it clear to the Planning Commission that they must say NO. We have a traffic impact ordinance but it appears that by using smoke and mirrors the developer will try to show how Home Depot (and the other stores that will follow on that site) will not impact our traffic all that much. They will try to convince the commission that a turn lane and another traffic light is all that is needed to mitigate any increased traffic. I say malarkey.

See for yourself. Look at the huge volumes of traffic that the big box retailers generate. Look at just how ugly these monstrous buildings really are. Is this you vision for your city's future?

Maybe it is all a done deal. Maybe the traffic impact ordinance is nothing more than a sham, put in place to appease us while ways to circumvent it are already being planned. Maybe we don't know what is best for us — maybe the developers know better. I certainly hope that is not the case.

If you care about the future of our city, you need to be at the commission's meeting on Monday night. If concerned citizens stand united, we can turn aside those who are only interested in their individual interests and making the biggest profit at the expense of our quality of life.

Steve Fodor
Peachtree City

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