Several neighbors from the Wilshire Estates subdivision expressed their displeasure Monday night about the projected loss of trees that would have screened a new shopping center being built on Ga. Highway 74 south near Holly Grove Road.

Initially when the Wilshire Village shopping center was proposed, the city asked developer Columbia Properties to leave a 60 foot tree save buffer from the highway. Later, the city learned that the Georgia Department of Transportation declared that another 20 feet would be needed off the right of way to relocate water lines.

In mid-July, the city learned of another potential encroachment into the buffer, as Georgia Power wants an easement from Columbia Properties to install concrete pole transmission lines that will cut into the buffer another 25 feet, leaving just 15 feet of the undisturbed buffer remaining.

Even if Columbia Properties denied the easement, Georgia Power could employ its power of eminent domain to take the property, city officials said.

City Planner David Rast said the city is hoping to convince Georgia Power to move the transmission line to the rear of the property, since the lines will ultimately be going toward Senoia anyway. If not, Georgia Power allows for limited landscaping to be planted under transmission lines but perhaps no more than 15 or 20 feet high.

“Georgia Power had to have known this a long time ago and not to notify us is unconscionable,” said Councilman Steve Boone.

Rast said the DOT previously has allowed utilities to be placed in the right of way. But that policy has changed, which resulted in the large swath of trees being torn down on the current widening of Hwy. 74 between Ga. Highway 54 and Cooper Circle, Rast noted.

Some residents at Monday’s planning commission meeting clamored for the city to take action by forcing Columbia Properties to redesign its development and take into account the new boundary. But the site has already been cleared and graded, leaving no vegetation.

Also, at Thursday’s City Council meeting, City Attorney Ted Meeker said since the initial site plan for Wilshire Village was approved in February, under Georgia law Columbia Properties’ development rights were “vested” since they met the city standards at the time the plan was approved.

That answer was in response to questions from several council members if the zoning was still valid or could be withdrawn. Cyndi Plunkett asked what would happen if the city decided to “invalidate the zoning.”

She answered her own question at first: “We’d be sued, we’d lose.”

Meeker then chimed in.

“I know we’d be sued,” Meeker said.

Monday night, Wilshire Village resident Naomi Duncan told the planning commission that Columbia Properties should be “held accountable to the original agreement.”

“It’s very simple: move it back,” Duncan said of the setback.

There was also discussion about the landscaping that could take place under the power lines. Rast said Columbia Properties has agreed to handle the landscaping in the powerline easement.

“You can put some nice trees in there similar to what they just did at the Starr’s Mill (office) project,” Commissioner Marty Mullin said, pointing to a site south of Wilshire Pavilion off Hwy. 74 past Rockaway Road. “It’s not a lot but it’s better than nothing.”

Later in the meeting, Commissioner Theo Scott said the height limit would only leave room for “pigmy trees.”

Wilshire resident Brian Dingivan suggested that the city make sure it deals with lighting on the site “so I don’t have to see it from my backyard.”

Rast said the city’s lighting ordinance allows it to address light levels at the edge of the property line.

The shopping center will have an Autozone, a Delta Community Credit Union, a Walgreens drug store and a Discovery Point child day care center.

Randy Thamer of Wilshire Estates said he felt the city should have known in advance the DOT wouldn’t allow the utilities to be placed within the right of way. But Mullin noted that in the past the DOT has allowed that to happen.

Laurie Farmer, former president of the Wilshire Estates Homeowner’s Association, noted that the neighborhood actively participated in negotiations with Columbia Properties when it sought the rezoning for the site.

“On September 12, 2008 we woke up to headlines of our local newspaper saying the Highway 74 utility expansion will kill our 74 south buffer,” Farmer said. “Were all our efforts for naught?”

Farmer said the berm at the Starr’s Mill Medical Center that Mullin referred to “is not adequate and will not meet our needs.”

Peachtree City resident Phyllis Aguayo was especially critical of the buffer problem.

“This goes way beyond disappointment,” Aguayo said. “I’m really angry. I don’t understand how this happened. ... We are losing the quality of Peachtree City inch by inch and parcel by parcel.”

Mullin noted that he attended a six-hour meeting in hopes of working out a resolution with representatives of the various parties.

“Trust me, a lot of things were put on the table in that six hours,” Mullin said. “I don’t know how to move that huge ship going down the road: GDOT. You can’t move it.”

Mullin asked for other potential solutions to the problem.