The Peachtree City Council will decide Thursday night whether to allow a proposed shopping center to exceed the city’s size guidelines by 25,000 square feet.

Also, the council is expected to vote on lifting the multi-family rezoning moratorium for an 89-acre tract of land off Ga. Highway 74 North owned by John Wieland Homes. The company is proposing to build 125 detached homes, 161 attached homes and 58 condominium units.

According to a staff memo on the project, the master plan shows a large centralized recreation area and parks in each neighborhood. Also there’s land set aside for potential office space or perhaps a location for Atlanta Christian College, which is considering relocating from East Point to Peachtree City, among several other communities.

The tract is located off Ga. Highway 74 north directly across from south Kedron Drive and also abuts the CSX railroad tracks.

The latest master plan for the 89-acre tract has been approved by a council-appointed citizen’s task force that has worked with Wieland for the past year on shaping the best plan for the parcel.

The tract is currently in the city limits and zoned for office-institutional use.

The anticipated vote on the shopping center size limit, if approved, would allow for the Line Creek shopping center to be 175,000 square feet of stores on a 16-acre site at the southwest corner of Ga. Highway 54 West and Planterra Way. The plan has already drawn some criticism because the City Council previously voted their intent to swap or sell part of the city-owned Line Creek Drive.

Should the road remain intact, there would not be enough room to build the larger stores due to city setback ordinances. Council has not yet signed off on a formal agreement to either sell or swap property for the street.

The latest conceptual site plan for the shopping center has only one entrance and exit, located on Ga. Highway 54. Previously the city considered an access road that would connect the development to Planterra Way and then Huddleston Road, but that was nixed after it drew complaints from residents in Planterra Ridge and Cardiff Park subdivisions, officials have said.

One Planterra resident recently said that cut-through traffic has been so bad at current levels that residents there don’t want an opportunity for drivers to turn south onto Planterra Way. Paul Van’t Hof suggested that Planterra residents might end up parking vehicles on both sides of the street, which would make it difficult for any traffic to get through.

The single access point, which would have two lanes going in either direction, was classified as a significant issue by the city’s Planning Commission. But ultimately the commission voted 4-0 to approve a recommendation to the City Council that the special use permit be approved.

Capital City is petitioning the Georgia Department of Transportation to allow a traffic light to be installed on Hwy. 54 at the intersection of Line Creek Drive, which would be between the existing traffic lights at Planterra Way and MacDuff Parkway.

The shopping center directly abuts Cardiff Park homes, and the developer has presented a detailed landscaping plan that includes a six-foot berm with landscaping on top and an eight-foot fence to make sure those residences can’t view the stores from their backyards.

The developer has also committed to adding landscaping to the entrance to Planterra Ridge on Planterra Way.

The plan includes several outdoor courtyard areas and fountains in addition to a raised speed table with brick pavers to help make the center more pedestrian friendly.