Uptown

Square, the Barnes & Noble shopping center

across Ga. Highway 85 from Fayette Pavilion,

continues to give Fayetteville's Planning

Commission fits.

And

the commission continues to give the center's

developers fits.

"We've

had more problems with this thing than we did

with a million square feet across the

street," said commission member Allan

Feldman during an hour of heated discussion last

week.

Commissioners

voted to ask the City Council to force developers

Concordia Partners Inc. to tear out a two-lane

exit from the shopping center onto Pine Trail

Road and replace it with a one-lane, right-only

exit with a concrete lip to prevent anyone using

the exit as an entrance, or making a left turn

into neighborhoods along Pine Trail.

That

exit has been a bone of contention between

developers, the city and neighbors during two

years of negotiations to bring the shopping

center to reality.

Residents

fought doggedly to get the city to deny any curb

cut on Pine Trail, saying they already face a

nightmare trying to leave their neighborhood

because of an entrance to Office Depot across the

street. But city officials eventually approved

the exit, saying the request was not in violation

of any city laws.

The

exit was supposed to have been constructed to

prevent any left turns, with a concrete lip to

make it virtually impossible to use it as an

entrance, Planning Commission members said,

adding that they want the company to return to

the original plan.

"Nobody

pays any mind to a `do not enter' sign on private

property," said commission member Feldman

before making the motion to recommend the change.

"It opens up to a very dangerous situation

that is really not acceptable," he added.

The

motion passed unanimously.

Residents

also have complained that lighting in the

shopping center is shining into their

neighborhood, and heavy machinery has been

cleaning the parking lot late at night in

violation of the development agreement.

"We

do not want to hear noise over there earlier than

7 o'clock in the morning," said Linda Bidez,

the shopping center's closest neighbor. She also

complained that a dumpster enclosure is not in

keeping with the development agreement and is

unsightly. "This is what I see when I come

out the front door," she said.

Concordia

President Kent Rose promised that the problems

are going to be smoothed out. "We're not

saying this is as good as it gets," he said,

promising to take care of the late night

sweeping, the lighting problems and other

complaints.

Commissioners

also voted 3-1, with Sarah Murphy opposed, to

deny the company's request for a change in the

approved colors for Linens & Things, the home

furnishings store that opened Friday.

The

store was painted different colors than those

approved as part of the city's development

agreement with the company, but Rose assured the

commission the mistake was an honest one. The

color, he said, "was inadvertently applied

in the field at the request of the tenant. There

was no intention on our part to circumvent the

process," he said.

Rose

asked that the commission allow the company to

make some minor changes to make the color more to

the commission's liking without completely

repainting the store, but commissioners refused.

"I

want to see the colors that were in the

development agreement," said commission

member Segis "Al" Lipscomb.

City

Council probably will discuss the Pine Trail exit

at its April 12 work session and April 17

business meeting

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