The

West Village Task Force will make a decision Aug.

9 to affect its future.

Mayor

Bob Lenox has asked the task force to consider

approving a master plan for the area that has

been created with input from the task force. He

asked each person to decide if he or she thinks a

new, more detailed plan presented this week was

"better for Peachtree City" than if the

city leaves the property under Fayette County's

jurisdiction.

By

annexing the property, the city would control how

the area is developed, Lenox argued.

"If

we're going to go for control, we need to have

absolute control," Lenox said.

Some

task force members, however, questioned if the

county's plans for allowing development in the

area would be acceptable.

"If

we decide to go forward, then we need to talk to

the property owners," Lenox said. "It

might fall to me to go to the property owners and

developers and say, `Can we do that?'"

The

task force is scheduled to meet Wednesday at 3

p.m. in council chambers at City Hall to conduct

the vote.

In

fact, before the task force discussed voting on

the plan next week, a citizen in the audience

urged them to speed up the process since the task

force seemed to be rehashing issues it visited

previously.

"I

think the time has come for you to take this

matter to the city council," said Peachtree

City resident Mark Klynott. "This is the

best possible outcome for this area."

Judging

task force members, it is not clear whether the

new plan will meet approval or not. It is also

unclear how the voting procedure will take place,

though Lenox said he hoped the group would come

to some sort of a consensus.

As

for his feelings, Lenox said he would be

"hard pressed to think we could have come up

with something better" in terms of what's

shown on the detailed plan that was presented to

the task force Wednesday afternoon by

representatives of Wood and Partners.

It

was also said that the task force could modify

the existing plan in several ways to make it more

palatable to what the group wants to achieve.

Wood

and Partners is a planning consulting firm that

helped the task force create the master plan

during a planning charrette, which was a lengthy

meeting one day followed by a meeting the

following day to show off the initial results on

paper.

That

plan was tweaked based upon later comments from

the task force and input from the developers on

the project.

Mark

Baker of Wood and Partners said the more detailed

plan has a focus on making the village area

"pedestrian in nature." The rough

numbers include between 1,600 and 1,700

residential units, with higher density areas in

the middle of the 900-plus acre tract and some

areas of one-acre-plus lots on the fringe area of

the proposed development.

Built

into the design for the area is a bridge crossing

the railroad tracks to provide access to Ga.

Highway 74 at the northern end of the property.

The village plan also includes several small

parks scattered throughout with size graduating

up to a 20-plus-acre park that could have a pond

attached.

Wood

and Partners also suggests putting in a buffer

wall to provide a barrier from the sound and

vibration that comes from the railroad track that

borders the eastern side of the proposed West

Village property. Another recommendation is to

keep intact a 100-foot buffer of vegetation along

the railroad track.

The

plan includes several mixed-use elements also. It

includes a village green area in the center of

the parcel

If

the task force proceeds with the current plan,

the next step might be to develop a special set

of building codes for the area. If it decides not

to proceed with the plan, its job may be over.

"If

we don't need to annex it, then we're done as far

as I'm concerned," Lenox said.

During

Wednesday's meeting the planning consultants were

grilled about the logic they used in designing

the village. Task force member Willis Granger

said he wanted to see more one-acre lots in the

village.

Some

of the other task force members said they still

had problems with the density issue. But Lenox

argued that the property will eventually be

bordered by two four-lane highways once Ga.

Highway 54 is widened.

"This

is where you put your density," Lenox said.

Several

overtures were made to determine if the bridge

could be funded another way so the developers of

the property could lower the density figures.

The

density is lower in the area along Line Creek and

along the rock quarry, Baker noted.