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Haddix: Just say no to PTC big box permitTue, 05/27/2008 - 4:39pm
By: John Munford
Next week the Peachtree City Council is expected to rule on whether a proposed shopping center can exceed the city’s size guidelines by 25,000 square feet. The Line Creek shopping center would be located on a 16-acre site at the southwest corner of Ga. Highway 54 West and Planterra Way. Despite the enhanced landscaping and pedestrian-friendly atmosphere proposed by Capital City Development, some residents think the stores proposed are just too big. Peachtree City Councilman Don Haddix said he plans to vote against granting the special use permit for economic reasons as well as traffic concerns. Haddix said he and fellow Councilman Doug Sturbaum did a survey of the city’s largest retail centers to study the amount of vacant storefronts. In those areas, the city has a 19.1 percent vacancy rate. “That’s huge,” Haddix said in amazement. It’s also a good argument that the city has far too much vacant retail space available currently, he added. Their study looked at the Wilksmoor, Westpark, Braelinn, Wilshire and Kedron area large shopping centers but did not include the smaller retail areas that are also having vacancy problems, Haddix said. Wilksmoor — the former West Village which features the newest-built smaller stores directly along Hwy. 54 — had the highest vacancy rate with 34.89 percent of all storefronts vacant, Haddix said. That’s where the Line Creek development is seeking to build. Kedron Village came in second with 18.97 percent vacancy, followed by Braelinn at 18.3, Wilshire at 15.7 and Westpark at 12 percent, Haddix said. Just down the road from the proposed Line Creek shopping center is the new Shoppes at Village Piazza shopping center, Haddix said. None of those stores has been occupied yet. Add on the proposed mega shopping center being built less than a mile across the county line in Coweta County, and shoppers over there will have no more reason to shop in Peachtree City as they have in the past, Haddix said. “So we’re going to lose sales that way as well,” Haddix said. The city benefits financially from retail developments in sales tax revenues and also property tax revenue generation. But with sales taxes decreasing if businesses are hurting, the city also feels the impact in lower revenue collections. Haddix said the traffic study submitted to the city by CCD does not address the “rush hour” traffic nor any counts on weekends. Also, the proposed traffic light on Line Creek Drive would further harm traffic flow in the area which is already “red-lining” anyway, Haddix said. Add in cars turning right out of the new shopping center trying to get to the Wal-Mart, who will have to go all the way across Hwy. 54, leaving a significant potential for auto crashes, he said. “To go to the Wal-Mart, they’ll have to jump over to the left immediately,” Haddix said, predicting traffic in the area to become “chaos” with the Line Creek shopping center and a new traffic light, should it be approved by the Georgia Department of Transportation. Haddix noted that sometimes westbound traffic on Hwy. 54 backs up all the way to the Wyndham Peachtree Conference Center. Instead of a stoplight on Hwy. 54 in between the Planterra and MacDuff lights, Haddix said he wants to see the shopping center have an access road that goes across Planterra Way to reach Huddleston Road. That would be a huge benefit to the residents of Planterra, as cut-through vehicles will find it easier to maneuver down Huddleston than through Planterra, Haddix said. Haddix also noted that unlike the representations from some citizens, Planterra Way is actually designated by the city as a neighborhood collector road, not just a street for smaller-scale residential traffic. The access road cutting across Planterra Way to Huddleston Road was nixed by city officials after complaints were received by Planterra residents. That leaves a four-lane driveway on Hwy. 54 as the only way in and out of the proposed shopping center. The city’s size thresholds require that shopping centers be limited to 150,000 square feet in size, but developers can seek larger projects with the permission from City Council. In this case, Capital City wants to build a 175,000-square-foot shopping center. CCD also wants to go over the city’s other size limit of 32,000 square feet for two individual retail stores. One, located right off the highway, would be 45,300 square feet and the other, located at the south east corner of the property, would be 42,000 square feet. Haddix said local, state and national studies have shown that big boxes lead to increased crime rates. He also argues that the city’s steady drop off the annual “best places to live” rankings has to do with deviating from the comprehensive plan and allowing large retail centers to be built. login to post comments
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