STORIES GO HERE---------------------->

In an

article The Citizen dated May 21, [Peachtree City's

director of planning and development] Jim Williams is

reported to have said that city got involved in tenant

matters because we lacked tenant interest for The Mews

project at the intersection of Walt Banks Road and Ga.

Highway 54.

Anyone who

has been involved with this process since last fall knows

how ridiculous that allegation is. We had a great

outpouring of tenant interest in The Mews project. The

fact of the matter is that the Planning Department of

Peachtree City made a marketing decision last fall to

push this project to the intersection of hwys 54/74, and

as a part of that decision started a lobbying campaign

against our zoning at Walt Banks and Hwy. 54.

After our

zoning was denied, which was due largely to Jim Williams'

public opposition - all of which is in the public

record - tenants have had no choice but to choose an

inferior, secondary site in Peachtree City or to make the

decision to skip the Peachtree City market altogether, as

some have done.

The irony

of all this is that prior to ever pursuing the Walt

Banks/Hwy. 54 site, we ourselves had considered the hwys.

54/74 intersection for our project.

However, we

were in possession of an official letter Jim Williams

personally had sent as far back as 1996 to the Coweta

County government describing the stretch of Hwy. 54

between Hwy. 74 and Coweta County as "dangerous and

congested," and strongly advising Coweta County

against considering any development in this area.

We never

would have believed subsequent to writing such a letter

to a neighboring government body, the Peachtree City

Planning and Development Department would do an abrupt

about-face and would endorse the development of some

300,000 square feet of retail development at the

"dangerous" intersection of hwys. 54/74.

What is

even more remarkable is that while a traffic impact study

is required as a part of the site plan approval process

on the development at that intersection, Williams

admitted in the May 26 meeting that no such study had

been conducted.

If the

Peachtree City Planning and Development Department

regarded the roads in that area as far back as 1996 as

dangerous, how in the interest of public safety can they

support the development of a large project in this area

without so much as the benefit of a traffic impact study?

John W.

Callaway, Ph.D.

Atlanta

[Editor's

note: Callaway is the developer who proposed The Mews.

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