In what

amounts to the beginning of the "drawing board"

process, the West Village Annexation Task Force has

helped design a sketch of what the 900-plus-acre area

could become if it is annexed into Peachtree City.

Now, Mark

Baker and Todd Theodore from Wood and Partners will work

with developers and city staff to tweak the drawing,

which will be presented to the task force within two or

three weeks, city planner David Rast said.

"This

is not by far the final plan," Rast said. "It's

in the very early conceptual stage."

The

drawing, which represents the largest annexation proposal

before the task force, was created by Baker and Theodore

after they met with the task force to hear ideas the

group would like to see included in the area.

The sketch

included a village center bordered by residential

subdivisions. Commercial businesses and offices would be

located in the center with a large city park nearby, Rast

said.

The design

also worked in a commuter rail station that could be

coming in the near future, along with a new school to

serve the area and a cultural arts center. All three

buildings would share a parking lot according to the way

the sketch was designed.

The

collector road for the area was designed to meander

through the area on a divided design to help prevent

traffic from using it as a bypass to get off Highway 74

onto Highway 54, avoiding that busy intersection, Rast

added.

A buffer

area of trees was also placed between the railroad track

in the area and the proposed location of residential

neighborhoods.

Mayor Bob

Lenox characterized the session as a good start for the

group, but he added that the sketch is "by no

means" the final plan. Lenox also said having the

developers work with Baker and Theodore is important to

the process to make sure the ideas can work from a

marketing standpoint.

Jerry

Peterson of Pathway Communities and Dan Fields of John

Wieland Homes -- representing two of the major

landholders in the West Village area -- both said after

the meeting that the sketch was a good start to the

process.

If the new

version of the sketch doesn't come in until two or three

weeks, that puts the task force very close to its end of

July deadline to provide a recommendation to council,

Lenox acknowledged.

Though he

hasn't officially extended the deadline, Lenox said he

realized the process might not be complete by late July.

"It's

more important for us to get it right than to get it

wrong to beat the deadline," Lenox said.