Three local families stand to lose their homes should the latest alignment of the West Fayetteville Bypass second phase be approved by the Fayette County Commission Thursday night.

Those property owners have been approached by county officials about the matter, but no official negotiations can take place on their properties until after the road alignment is approved and a subsequent right of way survey is complete, said county Public Works Director Phil Mallon.

Two of the affected homes are at the end of Janice Drive and the third is on Lee’s Mill Road near Mallard Creek Lane. The homes on Janice Drive were affected largely because of a need to steer the road path around nearby streams, Mallon said.

The home on Lee’s Mill Road is in the direct path of the proposed intersection for the bypass. The new road alignment will also require the “taking” of an existing barn structure, Mallon noted.

The commission is expected to vote on the latest road alignment Thursday night at its 7 p.m. meeting in downtown Fayetteville at the county’s Stonewall government complex.

Once the road path is approved and the right of way survey is complete, negotiations can begin between the county and the three affected homeowners for the amount the county will compensate them. That will involve a property appraisal from a third party source, and only if no agreement is reached would the county be considering a potential condemnation action, Mallon said.

Safety is one of the biggest factors driving the intersection designs of the road, Mallon said.

The latest version of the road alignment was tweaked to follow along some property lines in response to complaints from residents who felt it was unfair for the road to bisect their property, Mallon indicated.

The road alignment was also designed to reduce the potential impact of landowners pushing for new development to have access to the road, Mallon said.

The latest road alignment differs from the version released in September because the previous version didn’t take into account road design issues which are dictated by the speed limit of the bypass, which will be 45 mph, Mallon said. The new alignment also used field data on the location of streams and wetlands that was unavailable for the September alignment, Mallon said.

The bypass was initially conceived as a two-lane road with enough right of way to expand it to four lanes in the future. But after that drew significant concerns from residents, the county commission elected to reduce the right of way width from 120 to 100 feet, effectively preventing the bypass from ever being widened to four lanes, Mallon said.

The county has also announced its intent to limit direct access to the road for adjacent parcels so it doesn’t become choked with cross traffic. One of the goals of the road design is to enhance the county’s rural feel, Mallon added.

The road is being designed as a two-lane road with landscape medians at each intersection to create a parkway feel, Mallon said.

The second phase of the bypass will pick up at where it currently ends on Sandy Creek Road just south of the new school campus. From there it will actually follow a stretch of existing road on Sandy Creek before continuing onto a stretch of the existing Tillman Road.

The road will not follow the northwesterly turn on Tillman but instead will continue in a basically straight pattern to Eastin Road before meandering around a subdivision and continuing to cross Lees Mill Road just north of the private drive Mallard Creek Lane where one existing home is in its path.

From there the road goes toward the end of Janice Drive where two homes are in the road path before continuing around another subdivision and linking up with Hwy. 92 at West Bridge Road.

The general idea is in the future to have improved access to Interstate 85 for Hwy. 92, Mallon said. But there is no such active project in the regional transportation hopper at this point.

Mallon said the county needs to work with its counterparts in Fulton County and transportation officials at the state and federal level to make that happen.

The county is anticipating making Sandy Creek Road come to what will likely be a three-way stop at the bypass, as a new stub road will come off Sandy Creek just south of the new school campus to create that intersection, Mallon said.

Although it is too early in the design process to know for sure how each bypass intersection will be handled, one significant concern is for the intersection of the bypass and Lees Mill Road, Mallon said. That’s because there are a large number of school buses using Lees Mill Road each day, he added.

Mallon anticipates the bypass terminus at Hwy. 92 across from West Bridge Road would be signalized. Residents at bypass meetings have expressed concerns about the proximity of that traffic light to one just north on Hwy. 92 at Rivers Road, and staff is aware they will need to work closely with the Georgia Department of Transportation to insure traffic flows well there, Mallon said.

It is also too early in the process to determine how stream crossings will be handled with culverts or bridges, Mallon noted.

A map of the proposed alignment is on the county’s website, fayettecountyga.gov. From there, click a link on the left side for SPLOST, then scroll down the center to click on “Active Projects.” On that subsequent page, click on “learn more” next to the listing for the “West Fayetteville Parkway Phase II.”

The first phase of the bypass, extending from Ga. Highway 54 at Lester Road to Sandy Creek Road, is due to be completed later this year. The third phase, which will link the Lester Road/Hwy. 54 intersection with Harp Road near Ga. Highway 85 South, is still in the early design phase.

The third phase is dependent on state and federal funds, and county officials have recommended that local SPLOST funds be used for the entire project, due to the potential unavailability of federal and state dollars.