I writing this email to you to notify you of my opposition of the proposed commercial development across from the Wilshire Estates entrance and the Senoia Road link to Holly Grove Road.

I am concerned about the amount of traffic that will travel down Holly Grove Road on a daily basis. As you are surely aware, the intersection of Highway 74 and Holly Grove Road is already listed as the number 10 location for accidents in 2005. That was before Chick-fil-A was put in. The traffic from that one restaurant alone has made turning left from the Wilshire Pavilion onto Holly Grove Road nearly impossible, not to mention the hazard of trying to drive past that entrance to get to Highway 74.

I invite each of you to drive down Holly Grove Road from Robinson Road and try to pass the entrance of the Wilshire Pavilion turn right on Hwy. 74 then turn into the Wilshire Pavilion and come back out to Holly Grove Road and try to turn left back on Holly Grove Road. Oh, and please do this at about 5 p.m. any weekday or around noon on Saturday.

You will see these are challenges that we do not need to add additional traffic to.

The proposal on the table will only move this intersection up on the top 10 locations for accidents in Peachtree City. This does not make me feel good about the place that I have chosen to live in.

We have lived here for five years, relocating from another state. We love it here; however, the last couple of years have been extremely disappointing to us: The expansion of Hwy. 74 and the poor residents who now have no backyards or yards that all of us can easily look into.

The troublesome articles in the newspapers regarding the politics of this city are truly frightening. Being a newcomer, it has been amazing to read the comments grown adults print about each other and the broken promises the city seems to continue to have.

It appears that all of our elected officials have their own interests at heart. Maybe they have financial gains at stake also. I really don’t know what to believe anymore.

The way the golf cart tags thing was handled was also quite disappointing to me. I tried to contact the city about this only to literally argue with someone from the city manager’s office about it.

Please remember, we the residents of this city, choose to live here. We want a safe community. We pay higher taxes to get this.

To the City Council members and mayor: You were elected to look out for the best interests of the city and its residents, not your own interests. I do not believe it is in our best interest to approve a commercial development in this location.

Wilshire Estates has already pulled together once to let our opposition to the proposed school redistricting be known last year. We will do this again.

After the school redistricting proposals and this issue, I can assure you, I will be watching how each elected official votes and determine whether I can support that person in upcoming elections.

We picked our location to live within this city, to live a little bit away from all of the hustle and bustle of things. I believe most of my neighbors picked Wilshire Estates for the same reason.

This proposal takes that away from us. I’m not sure that I will continue to live in Wilshire Estates, much less Peachtree City, if this proposal is approved.

It is too bad that Peachtree City is not staying true to our founders’ vision.

Julie Grebeck

Peachtree City, Ga.

We fear the development will increase the traffic on Holly Grove Road, which we cross on our golf cart frequently on our journeys to market and other places in town. We also fear an increase in crime, noise and trash.

We have taken it upon ourselves to pick up the trash on a portion of the golf path near our home and the majority of trash comes from the recently constructed Chick-fil-A nearby. We shudder to think how much additional trash will come as a result of people using the streets and paths adjacent to this proposed development.

We have been to meetings in our neighborhood concerning this proposal and most of us fear the development will also impact the value of our properties.

Before you decide to permit this development (which we don’t want in our neighborhood) it is at the very least incumbent on you to assess and describe how it is that the city needs the money that comes from it and how long it will be before another such development will emerge because of the city’s financial problems.

Please hear our request. We don’t want or need another development much less another pharmacy proposed as part of it which will go directly across the street from the one that’s already here.

William A. Holland

Peachtree City, Ga.

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We recently relocated to PTC for the quiet neighborhoods and lack of traffic congestion. Columbia Properties’ proposal will without a doubt result in more traffic, crime and noise. If this is the type neighborhood we wanted to live in, we would have moved closer to the city of Atlanta.

The traffic on Holly Grove is already heavy and dangerous, especially for pedestrian and golf cart traffic. Cars are always running through the four-way stop. On the occasions that the PTC police have monitored Holly Grove and the four-way stop, they are constantly stopping cars for speeding or running the four-way stop signs. Just yesterday (3/20/07) we happened to be watching for a few minutes and between 6:45 and 6:50 p.m., two cars were stopped for traffic violations.

Again, we say NO to any commercial development in this immediate area regardless of the sales and tax revenue it will generate.

John and Rachel Meldrum

Peachtree City, Ga.

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I am adamantly opposed to the rezoning of the Stephens’ land tract. I do not want a big box in my neighborhood. I do not want a parking lot that accommodates 80-plus cars. I do not want a gas station in that parking lot. I do not want hundreds more cars coming through my neighborhood each day. I do not want my children to be at risk every time they want to go to the pool or to the local ice cream shop. I do not want an increase of 18-wheelers. I do not want their pollution.

Big boxes statistically increase crime in the surrounding neighborhoods. Needless to say, I do not want that!

I moved from Atlanta to Peachtree City to get away from the mindless development and growth. The proposed rezoning will create a mess to rival north Atlanta. No thanks.

If I need any home improvement materials, I really don’t mind driving the short distance to Gilroy’s or, God forbid, Home Depot.

I do not want the lights in a 50-acre parking lot illuminating my neighborhood.

I do not believe that this city was planned to become the next home to a regional shopping center; indeed, that flies in the face of what I always believed to be the philosophy that gave birth to this town.

The studies with which I am familiar show that although big boxes are a boon to a local economy in the short run, over time they become a drag on the local economy. I am here for the long-term.

I moved here in part because of the shopping village idea. The Wal-Mart/Home Depot development at 54 and 74 was NOT a selling point.

Just look at the traffic coming in and out of that area and tell me that is what you would want in your neighborhood. It is NOT what I want.

Edward Tanner

Peachtree City, Ga.

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Yes, Cal, I was still reading on Page 6 and was hoping you would go on for a few more pages.

Most old-time PTC residents would probably consider me a carpetbagger, since I moved my family here from upstate New York 10 years ago. However, having been born in College Park and raised in East Point, for me it was more of a return home.

My older sister and younger brother have both been long-term city residents, and Peachtree City was for years our annual vacation destination.

With the lakes, public pools, tennis courts and the golf carts, we never felt anything lacking after a two-week break from the weather and atmosphere of living in a northern city.

My fervent hope was to raise my kids in the same Southern tradition I enjoyed. Baseball played year round! Who could imagine? In Peachtree City we found everything we could hope for.

Though we’re not anywhere close to retirement, my wife Jean and I have always felt that this would be the last house we would ever buy. There was just no reason to ever leave.

However, as I watch Ga. Highway 74 creep closer to my back yard (we never realized it was so close with the 20-yard screen of trees that used to live there) we now sadly are already talking about where we want to go when the kids graduate.

Since I work from home I can go anywhere, and as a special education teacher, my wife shouldn’t have too hard of a time finding a job.

We just feel sad that such an incredible suburban experiment is being led by folks who seem to have no concept or concern for the quality of life issues that attracted so many of us here from all over the country.

A drive to Fayetteville or Newnan to go to Home Depot or Wal-Mart was not an inconvenience for us. It was a Saturday or Sunday drive with the kids. Gilroy’s has most everything I need anyway.

We seem to be caught up in a case of “asphalt envy.” Look at Ga. Highway 85 through Fayetteville. They have more paved square feet than we do, and we’re in a blind rush to close the gap.

When we first moved here, I couldn’t find anything because businesses were set back from the road and the signs were unobtrusive. Now we’re — no, they’re — building stores in front of stores that had already fronted the road, a la 54 and 74.

So, many will be glad to see us go, being the interlopers that we are, but as the (not “For Sale” but) “For Rent” signs keep going up in your neighborhood, we’ll quite frankly be glad to give it back.

Mike Carr

Peachtree City, Ga.

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Dear city officials, I am writing this letter because I want to express my freedom of speech.

You have been planning and building a lot of stores that I enjoy going to but because of this and building too many homes in PTC, I will now have to go to another school outside of PTC. A lot of other people, including me, are very frustrated over this issue.

I just wanted to let you know how I feel as a sixth grader that I have grown up here since preschool. I am very sad about this.

Lanier Daniel

PTC

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The above letter is from my 11-year-old intelligent daughter. Allow me to paraphrase her meaningful intention:

“I am being uprooted out of my school district that I have grown up in since preschool because government officials and developers have gone above and beyond the ‘planned’ city that PTC was designed to be by approving and allowing over-building too many residential areas that would eventually overload existing PTC schools, making established families school their children outside the PTC city limits where they have bonds with those families, churches, and other community associations.

“Then to top it off, annexing even more land onto PTC, overbuilding retail establishments, which encourages overspending for things people don’t need, and also brings in way more crime that this ‘used to be’ quiet little hollow will ever know ... And they ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”

Thank you for seeing things from my daughter’s point of view which, incidentally, I agree with 100 percent. You go, girl!

Shirley Daniel

Peachtree City, Ga.

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I am writing regarding my opposition to a rezoning of the Stephens’ tract along Ga. Highway 74 South from industrial to commercial. This rezoning is in conflict with the city’s comprehensive land use plan.

I am aware that traffic along Holly Grove Road, Robinson Road, Peachtree Parkway, Redwine Road and Braelinn Road will dramatically increase, seriously impacting safety, if this property is rezoned to allow “big box” development.

I oppose the “big box” retail component totaling 216,548 square feet as it is expected to draw people from surrounding counties. These centers have been shown to increase crime like shoplifting, car theft, vandalism and other negative impacts.

I believe this regional shopping center is wrong for this site because nearby schools, residences and existing shopping areas will be hurt by this development.

I would like to see the Peachtree City government focus efforts on revitalizing the existing retail shopping areas and utilize the 100,000 square feet of current vacant retail space before building additional commercial retail developments.

Dana Noah

Peachtree City, Ga.

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