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DOT: light not possible on 54WThu, 07/03/2008 - 12:49pm
By: John Munford
Without stoplight, shopping center may go back to drawing board A developer’s request for a new traffic light on Ga. Highway 54 West for a new shopping center in Peachtree City is going nowhere at the Georgia Department of Transportation, DOT officials confirmed this week. But the process is still ongoing to get that traffic light approved, Doug McMurrain of Capital City Development told The Citizen Thursday morning. The proposed traffic light would be too close to the existing traffic lights at Planterra Way and at MacDuff Parkway, a DOT spokesperson said last week. The state’s guidelines require a minimum of 1,000 feet of distance between stoplights and the traffic light sought by Capital City Development doesn’t meet those guidelines, said Kimberly Larson of DOT. Without that traffic light, CCD can not get a building permit for the site under the special use permit that was approved recently by the Peachtree City Council. McMurrain said it could take six, nine or more months to secure the traffic light approval from DOT. The special use permit allows CCD to exceed the city’s size guidelines for the entire shopping center and also for two individual stores on the site, one of which the developer has said would be a grocery store. The entire shopping center would be 175,000 square feet, located at the southwest corner of the intersection of Hwy. 54 and Planterra Way. Without the special use permit, a shopping center could still be developed on the site because it is zoned for general commercial use. But the development would be limited to being no bigger than 150,000 square feet with no single store larger than 32,000 square feet. In recent public meetings CCD representatives have said they are waiting to hear back from the DOT on a new traffic light application. But Larson confirmed that the DOT has not received a new application for the traffic light since last fall when a representative from LAI Engineering — which is working with CCD — was told last fall the traffic light would not be allowed. The DOT engineer who participated in that meeting gave LAI “some other options” for access to the site but as of Wednesday afternoon the company had not yet heard back from LAI, Larson said. McMurrain previously has told the City Council that the DOT has informed him the shopping center would qualify for the new traffic light based on the “warrants” being met for the amount of traffic at the intersection. As part of the special use permit approval, CCD has to provide a potential right of way access point along Planterra Way to the shopping center. That area, which has only so far been considered for being used if needed in the future, would allow for motorists to use the existing light at Planterra Way to enter the shopping center. Such a move would most likely be opposed by at least some residents in the neighboring Planterra Ridge subdivision who have complained of the possibility that an access point on Planterra would allow a significant amount of cut-through traffic to go through the subdivision by turning right to go south. Councilman Don Haddix, who joined Councilman Doug Sturbaum in voting against the special use permit, has said the city should build a road that would extend from the shopping center straight across Planterra Way to reach Huddleston Road. Haddix contends will be a better “shortcut” for motorists, thereby discouraging them to cut through the Planterra subdivision. The special use permit, approved on a 3-2 vote, has drawn some controversy because Peachtree City has agreed to CCD’s request to sell or swap land in exchange for part of Line Creek Drive and all of Line Creek Court, two existing city roads. Without those roads, the developer would not have had enough room to build the larger stores because of the city’s setback requirements from public roads. CCD’s Doug McMurrain said he would commit to pay a minimum of $500,000 (or swap an equivalent amount of land) in exchange for the streets. Recently he also agreed to pay up to $200,000 to fund landscaping in the median of Ga. Highway 54 West from Planterra Way to the city limits. CCD has also committed to a significant landscaping along the southern border of the property, which abuts homes in the Cardiff Park subdivision. That buffering will include landscaping, berms and fences to screen the development from view of the Cardiff Park residents’ backyards. login to post comments
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