Hwy. 74 at TDK to be slammed by new McIntosh Village with 3000+ homes; no money to widen roads in Coweta

A 3,000-home city-sized development proposed for unincorporated Coweta County will significantly affect peak-hour traffic on Ga. Highway 74 in Peachtree City, according to figures from the developer-funded traffic study of the development’s impact.

To offset the new traffic, the developer has proposed a massive upsizing of the intersection of Hwy. 74 and Crosstown Road, since many residents of the proposed McIntosh Village will reach Hwy. 74 via the proposed extension of TDK Boulevard. Crosstown becomes TDK on the west side of Hwy. 74.

The traffic study, performed by the firm Street Smarts, shows the intersection of Hwy. 74 at TDK Boulevard and Crosstown Road will be significantly impacted by the following projections:

• Cars going south on Hwy. 74 and turning right onto TDK in the peak evening commute hour will jump from the existing count of 32 autos to 924 by the time McIntosh Village is completed;

• Morning peak-hour traffic going east on TDK and then north on Hwy. 74 will jump from 11 cars now to 670;

• Morning peak-hour traffic going north on Hwy. 74 straight through the intersection with Ga. Highway 54 will leap from the existing count of 541 to 1,128;

All those figures include projected traffic increases for the two already-approved large-scale developments, the Twin Lakes subdivision in Senoia and the Twelve Parks at Sharpsburg. But the lion’s share of the increases were chalked up to the McIntosh Village proposal.

The developer is proposing a number of additional turn lanes at the intersection of Hwy. 74, TDK and Crosstown so that at times during the signal cycle, two lanes of traffic will be turning at the same time, Borkowski indicated.

The McIntosh Village project also will feature some 600,000 square feet of stores, and that will significantly affect traffic on Saturdays too, Borkowski said.

The development has not yet been considered for approval by the Coweta County Commission.

McIntosh Village developer Tom Reese is proposing a significant resizing of the Hwy. 74 intersection with Crosstown Road including an additional “straight” lane in all four directions, and that is not planned in the ongoing project to widen Hwy. 74, said Peachtree City Engineer David Borkowski, making a presentation to the City Council last Thursday night.

The study is assuming that Ga. Highway 154 in Coweta will be widened to handle the brunt of traffic going from McIntosh Village to Interstate 85, Borkowski said. The problem is that there are no state funds earmarked to widen Hwy. 154 yet, Borkowski said.

“And that’s nowhere on the current transportation plan,” said City Attorney Ted Meeker.

Developer Tom Reese is projecting McIntosh Village to be completed in 2016.

Based on the figures in the traffic study, some council members questioned whether the proposed TDK extension could be four-laned. Mayor Harold Logsdon said that would not occur.

“TDK is going to be two lanes,” Logsdon said.

Council discussed the possibility of opposing the recommendations of the Georgia Regional Transportation Agency in terms of the needed improvements the McIntosh development would trigger, particularly on Hwy. 74. Those recommendations, released late Monday afternoon, were not available at the time of council’s discussion Thursday night.

Councilwoman Cyndi Plunkett said she thinks the city needs to fight GRTA on the matter. Proponents of such a plan argue that Peachtree City shouldn’t have to fund such improvements since it has no taxing authority over the Coweta-based McIntosh Village project, which would be built out in 2016.

“Are we willing to say, ‘No, we’re not going to do it, what are you going to do about it?’” asked Councilwoman Judi-ann Rutherford.

“Yes,” Plunkett replied.

Rutherford said the city needs to fight all aspects of the traffic improvements associated with the McIntosh Village project.

Councilman Steve Boone said GRTA backed down on the traffic improvements it sought in Peachtree City to compensate for another large development in Senoia: the Twin Lakes subdivision.

Council did not take a vote on the matter Thursday night.

The validity of the traffic study’s projections has much to do with various “assumptions” made by the firm that compiled the study, warned Borkowski.

“If his assumptions are incorrect, it blows this out of the water,” Borkowski said. “... He’s assuming that people will use a Coweta County road.”

Rutherford noted that the study doesn’t take into account the proposed 1,300-home annexation off Ga. Highway 74 and MacDuff Parkway that the city is expected to be considering for its fifth village.