An under-the-radar project that would link Fayette and Coweta counties with a new bridge across Line Creek was met with some skepticism by the Peachtree City Council last week.
The “Northwest Collector” would extend from the as-yet unbuilt northern segment of MacDuff Parkway, aligning with north Kedron Drive, into Coweta County where it would link with Minix Road.
Ultimately, council decided not to seek regional transportation sales tax funding for the road, at least in part due to the unknown of how the road might affect Coweta County.
Council agreed to investigate the matter in the future.
There was some concern that Coweta might use the road as an opportunity to enable significant development, as was the case several years ago when work began on the extension of TDK Boulevard. That project died after it was revealed that Coweta commissioners approved a 3,100-home subdivision with related commercial and office space on its portion of the road.
Peachtree City officials determined that the Coweta development, then called “McIntosh Village” would send significant traffic onto Ga. Highway 74 south at TDK Boulevard/Crosstown Road.
What made matters worse was the the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority in January 2007 ruled that the TDK bridge would have to be four lanes wide instead of two to accommodate the future traffic from Coweta’s massive “McIntosh Village” subdivision. That created fears that the city would have been forced to four-lane the entire project at a significant cost.
Having faced significant public outcry against the project, the Peachtree City Council in June 2007 voted unanimously to kill the project, and the local funding that would have built it.
Mayor Don Haddix said he viewed the proposed Northwest Collector as being similar to the TDK fracas.
“I guess the reason I didn’t rank this one as high is because in my mind this is another TDK and I didn’t see a lot of public support for this,” Haddix said.
Councilman Eric Imker had a different view, however.
“I don’t see a problem with Coweta traffic coming to the north side of Peachtree City there, and going north,” Imker said. “That to me doesn’t seem like a TDK type of situation.”
Later in the meeting, Imker said he didn’t think the Northwest Collector was anywhere close to being like the TDK situation.
Resident Beth Pullias expressed concern about the project during citizen comments.
“I hesitate to recommend a road unless it benefits the residents of Peachtree City,” Pullias said. “I am not sure this road benefits Peachtree City as much as it does Coweta County.”
Another problem faced by the road is how it would change existing development plans in the area. The current plan to build new homes there does not account for the Northwest Collector, city officials said.
