A conceptual plan to raze Peachtree City’s Ruby Tuesday restaurant and replace it with a much larger Walgreens pharmacy was approved Monday by the Peachtree CIty Planning Commission.
The Walgreens, located at the corner of Ga. Highway 54 and Peachtree Parkway, will be three times the size of the existing restaurant.
Architecture for the site, including building materials and color selections, will be reviewed at a later date by the planning commission, but it will be a very important matter according to Planning Commission Chairman Patrick Staples.
Staples reiterated Monday that he expects the store to be unique and void of Walgreens corporate architecture.
“Really no matter what we do on this corner, you’re gonna have a big old building,” Staples said. “… It has to look special. That’s a special corner in Peachtree City. To me that’s a critical factor.”
A Walgreens representative has assured the city that despite the large size of the store compared to the existing restaurant, all the existing landscaping surrounding the site off the highway and Peachtree Parkway will remain.
Several citizens have complained that Walgreen’s should find a better location since the current site proposal would put it directly adjacent to a competitor: the Rite-Aid pharmacy.
The Walgreens store would have a few golf cart parking spaces at the front of the store with handicap parking on the other side of the front row. The lack of landscaping along the handicap spots on the concept plan drew some criticism from the commission, but Walgreens representative Scott Moore said that was a matter of meeting guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act, by keeping patrons from being obstructed by landscaping as they enter and exit their vehicle.
Moore said the company hopes to break ground by Jan. 1 with a store opening date the following September.
