By PAT NEWMAN
Staff Writer

Developers for Home Depot in Peachtree City lost the first round in their bid to build a 137,184-sq. ft. retail outlet on Ga. Highway 54 West.

After hours of presentations, public comment and discussion, the Peachtree City Planning Commission voted four to one to deny approval of the project's site plan. The project will most likely go to City Council on appeal for the next round of hearings.

About 130 citizens, many of them Planterra Ridge subdivision homeowners, crammed into the city's council chambers Monday night to oppose the project. A petition containing 800 signatures was presented to the commission by Randy Williams of Planterra Ridge. “We do not feel that Home Depot meets the quality of life... nor do they have our best interest at heart... we implore you not to build in Peachtree City,” Williams said.

A traffic plan presented by Ed Ellis and prepared by Dames and Moore, a firm retained by Peachtree City to provide criteria for judging new developments, was poorly received by the audience. According to developer Doug McMurren of RAM, the company handling the Home Depot project, their response “kind of ugly... it was not fair the way he was treated,” McMurren commented.

Louis Chalmers, the traffic consultant for Home Depot, said that retiming the traffic signals at the intersection of hwys. 54 and 74 and prohibiting left turns onto Huddleston Road from the west bound lanes on Hwy. 54 would ultimately improve traffic flow through the intersection.

Planterra residents were also up in arms over the proposed traffic signal at the Home Depot entrance which would be aligned with the entrance to their development.

Approval of the proposed highway and road improvements are a condition of the project going forward. While Ellis conceded that some of the proposals could be done without Department of Transportation OK, others are contingent on the region meeting the standards of the Clean Air Act.

Before voting, Commissioner Jim Finney said, ”It would be an easy thing to approve this and move on, but it's not the right thing... it's not right for the quality of lifestyle we have here. There are problems (with the plan); it doesn't work.”

Commissioner Robert Ames voted for denial based on the brief amount of time given to the commission to review the new traffic information. Finney added that it should be denied based on “a dozen different reasons... it would endanger the public health, safety and welfare.”

Chairman Wes Saunders preferred to table the plan until some of the debated items could be worked out. He cast the single vote against denial.