A developer who wants to eclipse Peachtree City’s size requirements for shopping centers met some citizen resistance while making its case to the city’s Planning Commission Monday night.

Representatives of Capital City Development said they’d have a landscape plan for that buffer ready for a special called meeting May 19, so the commission can vote whether or not to recommend approval of the special use permit.

Capital City Development’s request will be the first test of the city’s new big box ordinance, which requires the special use approval from the City Council to build shopping centers larger than 150,000 total square feet. CCD wants to build a 175,000-square-foot center at the intersection of Ga. Highway 54 and Line Creek Drive, next to Planterra Way.

The Line Creek shopping center includes five large buildings ranging from 20,300 to 45,300 square feet each, along with two smaller buildings for “shops” of 9,400 and 5,000 square feet.

The site is 16 acres and is adjacent at the rear to the Cardiff Park subdivision as well as part of the city’s Line Creek Nature Area. In fact, the company is proposing to give the city a small swath of land along the nature area in exchange for the city swapping the Line Creek Drive and Line Creek Court, a condition that has been approved in concept but not in detail by the City Council.

Capital City attorney Rick Lindsey said he had worked hard to get the appraiser’s estimate for the city streets by the meeting but he was unsuccessful. Several residents said the process shouldn’t proceed without that information and others.

Resident Tim Lydell, who lives in Cardiff Park, said he didn’t think the plans presented Monday adhered to the conditions of the development agreement that CCD has signed with the city. Lindsey said that agreement has been recorded with the county and is legally binding on the current and future owners of the parcel.

Lydell said the buffer, at 50 feet minimum, was previously pitched as being 70 feet and later grew to 140 feet before shrinking to its current size, and he felt it was crucial to protect the 28 homes in Cardiff Park, particularly their value.

Lydell said he wanted the city to use the exact same language CCD’s Doug McMurrain used to pitch the shopping center to the neighbors: that they “won’t see it, smell it or hear it.” He also said he wants the city to require the landscape buffering to be reviewed in several years and require the buffer to be enhanced if those promises aren’t kept.

Planning Commissioner Patrick Staples said he’d like to see the buffer along Cardiff Park enhanced even further. Currently the buffer starts at 50 feet on the eastern side tapering up to 75 feet on the far western portion. It also includes a six-foot berm and a six-foot fence, which Lindsey argued would help screen the development in addition to the lowering of the shopping center’s grade from the current condition.

Commission Chairman Marty Mullin said he couldn’t support the plan without seeing the detailed landscape plan for the buffer area. He added that he felt comfortable the buffer could be successful, though.

Jim Lowe, representing CCD, said he would prepare the landscaping plan for the commission’s review, but he wanted to make sure the city kept the target date for a final decision from the City Council in the first week of June.

Mullin said there’s also as much interest in making sure the plan looks nicer from Ga. Highway 54 as there is in making sure Cardiff Park is protected from the development.

Resident Beth Pullias said she didn’t think the project had any significant benefit worth the city granting the special use permit. She pointed to two smaller stores that are planned for the western side of the property.

City Planner David Rast said one significant concern is the emergency access since there will basically be one way in and one way out: immediately off Hwy. 74. CCD is proposing to have each side of the entrance feature two lanes to make it easier.

Lowe said the company would have its traffic engineer available at the commission meeting next week.

The city’s position on the development proposal was not completed in time for the meeting but it’s anticipated to be ready by Monday’s meeting.

The item is currently on track to be discussed by the City Council at its meeting on Thursday, June 5.

Commission Chairman Marty Mullin said he wanted to move “cautiously and slow,” adding that he was concerned why the development agreement was not part of the special use permit application process.

The project has already been the subject of some controversy as the City Council has agreed to swap part of the existing Line Creek Drive with the developer, Capital City Development of Colorado. The exact details of the land swap has not yet been voted on, however, and Capital City will be required to swap an amount of land at least equal to the appraised value of the property.

The plan does not identify which tenants signed leases at the development.

CCD is estimating that the city will get an additional $300,000 in taxes annually from the development.

The plan includes 548 parking spaces and a tree-lined entry driveway from what CCD is hoping to be a new stoplight on Ga. Highway 54. That decision is in the hands of the Georgia Department of Transportation and not Peachtree City.

CCD has committed to installing extra landscaping at the rear to buffer the view for residents of Cardiff Park and also to building a six-foot fence along that 50-foot greenbelt. Also, CCD will be lowering the grade of the site, which is currently going uphill heading south on Line Creek Drive away from Hwy. 54.

About 24 percent of the site will remain open space or greenbelts, according to CCD’s application for the special use permit.

There are also two outdoor courtyard ares for patrons, which may ultimately be used for restaurant seating, and the 45,300-square-foot building closest to the highway will also have a covered terraced patio and grassy area.

The buildings will be made of brick, stone and other masonry, according to CCD’s application. Also, brick pavers will be used in the parking lot with a dual purpose of slowing down traffic via a “speed table” halfway down the entry drive.

A golf cart path will be built along Ga. Highway 54 and also will extend toward the city’s tennis center, according to the plan.

Doug McMurrain of CCD has told city officials that he wants the shopping center to look like The Avenue retail center.

Although CCD at a recent meeting indicated that it may conduct development in phases, it indicated in its recent filings with the city that such is now “not anticipated.”

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