Will it be a 24-hour RaceTrac, or something much bigger coming to Ga. Highway 54 West in Peachtree City? Or maybe both.
Peachtree City officials may be inching closer to a deal that would give a developer two city streets in a land swap that would make way for a larger-scale retail development on Ga. Highway 54 West.
Monday night, the city’s planning commission will consider endorsing a proposal to give up the streets in exchange for a mass of land along the rear of this property which is adjacent to the Cardiff Park subdivision.
At the same meeting, the commission is expected to review a proposal to build a RaceTrac convenience store/gas station on the same property, right off Ga. Highway 54 at Line Creek Drive, very close to the existing traffic light for Hwy. 54 and Planterra Way. The commission meets at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
According to a draft of an agreement authored by the city, the land given to the city in a proposed swap would be in addition to a 75-foot wide “transition yard” required by city ordinance any time a commercial development abuts a residentially-zoned parcel. Also, the city is asking for a tract of land abutting the Line Creek Nature Area no less than 25 feet wide extending from Cardiff Park to the Midas store tract.
Both tracts of swapped land and the transition yard would be deeded to the city as greenbelt, according to the agreement. Also on the city’s wish list is a road that would go west of the retail center, through Line Creek Nature Area to connect with the Shoppes at the Village Piazza shopping center at Hwy. 54 and MacDuff Parkway.
The Southern Conservation Trust, which operates the nature area, has apparently agreed to allowing that road in part to enhance the public access and visibility of the nature area.
Without possession of the streets, Trinity Development is severely restricted by the city’s setback ordinance and thus wouldn’t be able to put in a projected 164,000 square feet of stores (think two Publixes).
Instead, Trinity last month settled for a scaled back plan that involves the parcel being split up into different pieces, which is not the way the city typically likes to handle development: having to deal with different property owners and different tastes instead of making a cohesively designed shopping center.
The 13-acre tract is currently owned by BB&T bank, which foreclosed on the parcel last year.
The final say on a road swap rests with the City Council, but it stands to reason that the land swap wouldn’t be resurrected unless there was at least a modicum of support among the five elected officials representing the city.
The parcel would be accessible via a right-in, right-out design off Ga. Highway 54 and also Line Creek Drive, which is an unsignalized intersection.
