Deal requires land from Pathway, Planterra golf club

The deadline has come and passed for a federal grant to the Peachtree City Airport Authority that will pave the way for TDK Boulevard to be extended from Peachtree City into Coweta County.

But federal officials have not yet taken away the $2 million grant that will allow Falcon Field to acquire more land for a runway safety area ... and also allow the new road to be built.

The grant came with a condition that the FAA could take back the funds if they weren’t spent by Oct. 1, according to Phil Cannon of the Federal Aviation Administration. But Cannon said Thursday that has was told the parties came to an agreement at a Tuesday meeting.

The deal is complicated because there are several entities involved in the transaction including Pathway Communities, (Sequoia Golf which owns the Planterra Ridge Golf Club), Falcon Field and Fayette County.

Pathway has insisted that a condition of the sale be that TDK Boulevard be extended to land it owns along Line Creek; that parcel will ultimately border the planned Lake McIntosh reservoir.

The $2 million FAA grant will allow the airport to purchase property to the north which gives more land for a runway safety area at Falcon Field. A previous layout of the proposed TDK Boulevard showed the road going right up against the airport’s current property, putting vehicles in the flight path at the airport.

With the new land the road will loop to the north around the airport’s runway safety area. The runway safety area is considered necessary to give aircraft an extra amount of length to take off and land in case of an emergency.

Once the deal is closed, the county will be able to begin work on the bridge that will span Line Creek so TDK Boulevard can link up with Stallings Road/McIntosh Trail in Coweta County. But other road work will be delayed a while as it will take at least a year to relocate the necessary golf holes at Planterra Ridge, officials have said.

The Planterra property is key to the runway safety area, and the golf holes will be relocated to land contiguous to the golf course that’s currently owned by Pathway.

The project has suffered numerous delays over the years; city officials originally hoped to have it ready to be a traffic relief valve when the state began construction on the widening of Ga. Highway 54 West between Peachtree City and Coweta County.