The latest plan for a shopping center off Ga. Highway 54 West looks similar to the previously favored “Kohl’s” plan, just without the Kohl’s and with smaller big box stores in its place.

Back are a series of three smaller buildings for shops along the highway and corner of the 14-acre property at the southwest intersection of Planterra Way and Hwy. 54. A potential 42,000-square-foot grocery store location has been moved back away from the highway to the rear of the parcel even with three other stores.

Those address the comments from the Planning Commission at its previous meeting, the members saying they were concerned about having the large grocery store right off the highway.

Another change to the plan wasn’t as well-received: shrinking the setback along the Cardiff Park subdivision, and that’s something that drew negative remarks from several citizens at Monday’s Planning Commission meeting.

The commission considered the plan in a workshop format only, but it’s likely to be up for a potential vote at the April 24 meeting. Even if it gets the commission’s approval, an OK is still needed from the Peachtree City Council because of the size of the two largest stores.

For the plan to get the final go-ahead, the City Council must sign off on a special use permit at a later date.

Capital City’s Doug McMurrain said it’s possible the setback could be enlarged, in part by moving a stormwater detention facility to the rear of the property. McMurrain said the company could possibly add an additional 20 feet of buffer along Cardiff Park.

The plan includes a six-foot landscaping berm at the rear along Cardiff Park in addition to a screened fence and additional landscaping. Also, the grocery store’s trash compactors will be refrigerated to prevent odors from escaping, McMurrain indicated.

The small shops along the front of the highway will have two outdoor courtyard areas, and landscaping has been beefed up on the main entry drive that would intersect with Line Creek Drive.

Capital City Development is proposing the shopping center to be 175,000 square feet total, the maximum allowed under a development agreement in which the City Council agreed to allow the company to purchase the existing streets of Line Creek Drive and Line Creek Circle.

Without those streets, the city’s road setback rules would have prevented Capital City from proposing any large retail stores due to the layout of the parcel.

Along with the planned 42,000-square-foot grocery store are a 45,000-square-foot building and two smaller ones at 28,000 and 25,000 square feet.

Mayor Harold Logsdon, who has begun attending planning commission meetings informally to increase communications with the City Council, said he hasn’t yet given up on having an access road to connect Capital City’s parcel with the planned Shoppes at Village Piazza shopping center further to the west.

The Shoppes at Village Piazza is being developed on the former site of the Days Inn, and the city owns property in between that parcel and Capital City’s, but currently that parcel — part of the city’s Line Creek Nature Area access — is prevented from development due to deed restrictions.

Logsdon indicated he is hopeful to get the company that donated the land, Pathway Communities, to lift the deed restrictions to allow the access, which might eliminate the need for a traffic light at Hwy. 54 and Line Creek Drive for Capital City’s development.

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