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Road vote likely to OK sale Wed. nightTue, 02/12/2008 - 5:30pm
By: John Munford
Pact on abandoning 2 city streets being brokered; expected 3-2 vote will mean ‘smaller’ big boxes The Peachtree City Council seems poised to approve by a 3-2 vote Wednesday night [Feb. 13] a plan to abandon two roads off Ga. Highway 54 West so the land can be purchased by a shopping center developer. Last week the council directed City Attorney Ted Meeker to craft a written agreement with Capital City Development governing all the conditions for the potential abandonment of Line Creek Drive and Line Creek Circle. That development agreement is expected to be ready by the 7 p.m. special called meeting at City Hall Wednesday night [Feb. 13]. If the roads remain as-is, CCD will be unable to build a big box store due to the city’s road setback requirements. Some citizens have suggested that the city should retain possession of the roads to prevent big boxes from being built on the commercially zoned 14-acre tract, located at the southwest corner of Hwy. 54 and Planterra Way. Others have argued that the big boxes are necessary to allow for a higher-quality development and in turn a number of concessions CCD has agreed to. Many of those concessions would screen the shopping center from the view of the adjacent Cardiff Park neighborhood. Capital City Development has pledged to pay at least $500,000 for the roads, or pay the appraised value for the roads if it’s more than $500,000. CCD has also submitted a plan that would have no big boxes on the site, but instead features a gas station directly off the highway anchoring a 99,000-square-foot shopping center. That gas station plan was denied recently by the city’s Planning Commission, and the appeal of that decision is also on the agenda for Wednesday night. Councilwoman Cyndi Plunkett — the swing vote in the controversial proposal — said Tuesday that the development agreement, if approved by the council, would be enforceable not only on the current landowner but also on future landowners. Last week Plunkett said she wouldn’t vote to approve a big box retail store as large as 100,000 square feet, but she would consider voting for two smaller big box stores on the property. The smaller stores, around 40,000 square feet or so, are much easier to replace with new retailers should they become vacant at some point, Plunkett said. Because the property is already zoned for commercial use, the council has little control over the ultimate development of the property save for the road abandonment issue, Plunkett said. “It will definitely be developed sooner versus later, and all we can do is try and shape the project,” Plunkett said. Plunkett is widely considered the deciding vote on the matter as new council members Doug Sturbaum and Don Haddix have firmly opposed big box development for the site, while Mayor Harold Logsdon and Councilman Steve Boone have said they favor it. Logsdon has said if the city doesn’t allow a big box on the site, the retailers instead will go to a shopping center proposed just across the county line in Coweta County, and the city would lose the sales tax revenue but still have traffic problems. Haddix said national studies have shown that big box retail stores cost more to cities than is reaped in tax income. Plunkett said a city official has told her it’s unlikely the shopping center would require a new traffic light for Line Creek Drive in large part due to the proximity of the stoplights at Planterra Way and at MacDuff Parkway. The Georgia Department of Transportation is in charge of determining when traffic signals are warranted on state highways, with most of the criteria addressing the expected traffic that would be generated by the new development. login to post comments
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