Despite allegations to the contrary, the Fayette County Commission never intended to resurrect the TDK Boulevard Extension project in a recently-completed land swap with Peachtree City, according to commission Chairman Herb Frady.
The county’s only goal was to gain ownership of a parcel to provide access to the Lake McIntosh dam and recreation area, Frady said at the close of a commission meeting Wednesday.
In return, the city got a swath of land along Line Creek that gives the city a final say over whether the TDK extension will ever come to fruition.
The road extension would have linked with Coweta County via a bridge over Line Creek. It was scuttled in 2007 on worries that a proposed Coweta development along its side of the extension would flood Ga. Highway 74 south with traffic and potentially siphon customers from city businesses.
That development, called McIntosh Village, was approved for 3,100 homes and 600,000 sq. ft. of retail on 1,558 acres located on the Coweta-Peachtree City border.
Initially proposed by a different developer, the property is now owned by the Mormon Church.
There is a push to get the Coweta property developed, as representatives of the Mormon Church and local developer Doug Mitchell of Pathway Communities have met
with county officials about three times since late 2010, Frady said.
The county told the developers that Peachtree City will have to approve the road, not the county, Frady added.
“I told them three times we had no interest in participating in that,” Frady said. “I just want to set that story straight.”
Peachtree City Mayor Don Haddix said that Mormon officials have also attempted to convince him to resurrect the road extension, but they haven’t been able to do so.
Frady noted that back in 2006 there was an agreement in place for the city to chip in $200,000 for the road extension with the county paying for $800,000 on the road. In the end, the county refunded the city’s $200,000 and spent its own $800,000 on other projects, Frady added.
The 650-acre Lake McIntosh will stretch just south of Ga. Highway 54 West and north of Falcon Field Airport. It will be located along Line Creek though most of the land is in the jurisdiction of Coweta County. The land was purchased back in the 1970s and is owned by Fayette County.
The county expects to spend upwards of $400,000 to build an access road to the lake’s amenities. The 650-acre lake is projected to have a playground, a gazebo, two walking trails, a picnic pavilion, docks and parking for boat trailers. It also will feature a gate at the entrance so the park can be closed from dusk until dawn.
