At the request of the developer, the Peachtree City Council Thursday night postponed consideration of a controversial rezoning on Ga. Highway 74 South near Holly Grove Road for a 300,000-square-foot shopping center directly across from the Wilshire Pavilion shopping center.

The matter will be brought back up at the June 7 meeting of the council. But before Thursday night’s vote to table the rezoning, Councilman Steve Boone questioned the need to postpone the matter since the public has weighed in so heavily against the project.

Boone in fact voted against the motion to postpone the public hearing on the rezoning. The vote to postpone was approved by council 4-1.

Columbia Properties has requested a rezoning of the property from light industrial to limited use commercial. The company wants to build a large home improvement store and a large soft goods store, with both buildings bigger than is currently allowed under the city’s big box ordinance.

However, Columbia proposed to skirt the big box rules by seeking the limited use commercial zoning designation. The big box regulations only apply to property zoned general commercial, according to city ordinances.

The home improvement store was proposed to be 138,000 square feet and the entire development was to total 216,000 square feet, not including several retail out-parcel lots along Hwy. 74.

The city’s planning commission had recommended denial of the rezoning, and City Planner David Rast had suggested the city rezone for commercial only the property on the highway frontage. Rast’s suggestion was to leave the remainder of the property — where the large retail stores were to be located — zoned for industrial use.

The city’s land use plan calls for the site to be developed with a medium density single family subdivision, so Columbia’s proposal for a shopping center doesn’t mesh, Rast indicated.

Columbia Properties built the nearby Wilshire Pavilion shopping center.

Residents in the nearby Wilshire Estates subdivision have opposed the rezoning, saying the resulting traffic will endanger kids who use Holly Grove Road to walk through the subdivision because there is no cart path along the road.

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