Peachtree City now has a plan for finishing a cart path leading eastward from a tunnel underneath MacDuff Parkway.
The project has been slowed for several months while city staff got feedback from officials at Camden Apartments, as some of its land will be necessary to accommodate the path.
Camden representatives brushed off the city’s first option, but a second preliminary design has won favor, as long as the city puts up a fence and landscaping in one particular area to keep the general public from entering the complex, city officials said Tuesday night.
The preliminary estimate for construction is $185,000 because a small pre-fabricated bridge will be necessary to cross wetlands in the area, Community Development Director David Rast told the City Council and Planning Commission at their joint meeting.
No final decision was made on the project, except that staff will get a more firm estimate on the cost to allow a vote from the full council.
But before that point was reached, there was some discussion on whether the path was needed due to the large number of path users already accustomed to driving through the Cedarcroft subdivision to reach a path that heads to the Wal-Mart and Home Depot areas.
Councilman Eric Imker argued that the city would serve far more path users by building a path that connects homes on Robinson Road with the Crossings East (Publix) shopping center just outside the city’s eastern limits on Ga. Highway 54.
Mayor Don Haddix noted, however, that this project will be crucial once the proposed “gateway bridge” for the path system is built spanning Ga. Highway 54 West, linking the path along MacDuff (and the tunnel) to the Shoppes at the Village Piazza shopping center and Line Creek Nature Area on the south side of the highway.
Plus, the path running from the tunnel was used as justification for the gateway bridge project being included on a list for possible funding from a regional transportation tax, Haddix said.
Councilwoman Kim Learnard noted that some residents in Cedarcroft would prefer the city to shrink the Wal-Mart and Home Depot path down to a size for bicycles only. Cedarcroft residents have complained about the high volume of traffic on that section of path because it links to the two major chain stores and other retail in the area.
