The

bell sounds tomorrow night for the next round of

the ongoing fight to stem the traffic tidal wave

on Ga. highways 54 and 74 in western Peachtree

City.

The

City Council has scheduled a public hearing

during its regular meeting to consider such

options as a traffic impact ordinance and a

building moratorium for the traffic-choked

corridor.

Officials

from the Georgia Department of Transportation

were on hand for a City Council meeting last

month to spell out the situation for possible

improvements, and the news was mostly bad. Due to

federal air regulations and litigation to stop

road widening all around metro Atlanta, the

widening of Hwy. 54 is now projected for

completion in 2008, several years later than

first expected.

Meanwhile,

an avalanche of development is either on the

drawing board or already underway west of Hwy.

74, including:

� The Avenue shopping center

at City Circle, on the south side of Hwy. 54,

having already seen most of the preliminary work

completed and ready for construction to begin;

� Line Creek Parkway, for

which some grading has been done, with several

commercial outparcels as well as possibly 400

apartments and 200 homes planned along a

quarter-mile stretch;

� And most recently, a

proposal for a Wal-Mart superstore and a Home

Depot directly across Hwy. 54 from Planterra Way,

bordered on the west by the proposed apartments

and on the east by the railroad tracks, which

prevent any access from Hwy. 74.

The

city has retained Dames and Moore, a traffic

consulting firm, to prepare a traffic model for

the corridor and develop standards for evaluating

the impact of future development projects. Dames

and Moore has already conducted a traffic study

on behalf of Cousins Properties for the Avenue

project, and much of that information was shared

at the recent City Council meeting during earlier

traffic discussions.

City

staff and consultants have already met with

Georgia Regional Transportation Authority

officials in an effort to speed up needed

improvements. Follow-up discussions also have

been held with state DOT leaders and members of

the Atlanta Regional Commission in recent weeks.

An

outline for a traffic impact ordinance has been

prepared and will be presented to the City

Council tomorrow night. If adopted, it would

apply to all new projects or additions to

existing projects along the Hwy. 54 corridor, as

well as any other projects in the city that would

have a significant impact on the corridor.

All

projects not declared exempt under specific

parameters outlined in the ordinance would be

required to have a traffic impact study prepared

prior to final site plan approval. The elements

required in the traffic study would be spelled

out in the ordinance.

Once

the study is plugged into the city's new traffic

model, if it does not meet established standards,

the consultants would recommend possible

mitigation. If the applicant were unable to meet

that, then the city would withhold building

permits until standards are met.

City

staff recommends that the council adopt the

ordinance rather than impose a building

moratorium, which it says "is perceived as a

totally negative approach."

Council

is also being encouraged to take action regarding

projects already in the development process but

for which permits have not yet been issued. While

not wanting to delay the process any more than

absolutely necessary, city staff recommends that

the council urge these developers to get traffic

studies done as quickly as possible so that the

steps outlined previously can be applied to their

projects as well as new ones.

Other

items on tomorrow night's agenda include:

� A bid proposal for city

property/casualty insurance, tabled from the last

meeting;

� A public hearing on a

proposed rezoning of a tract on Clover Reach from

LI (limited industrial) to LUC (limited use

commercial);

� A public hearing on a

proposed variance for lot 143 in Fairfield, which

would allow the owner to construct a 16- by

10-foot addition on the rear of the house,

encroaching into the established setback (city

staff recommends denial);

� Possible updating of the

Master Recreation Plan; and

� Consideration of the

Peachtree City Water and Sewer Authority's

proposed operating budget ($2.6 million) and

Capital Improvement Plan ($3.5 million) for the

upcoming fiscal year. City Council approval is

required for the CIP.

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