Wal-Mart squeezes

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"Table it!" came

the shout from an overflow crowd that jammed Peachtree City's council

chambers Thursday night.

The outburst, which interrupted

a statement from councilwoman Carol Fritz, was one of several jeers that

came from citizens who apparently didn't like the direction council was

heading. Fritz was explaining her position on a request to approve the

concept plan for a Wal-Mart Superstore that weighs in at over 200,000

square feet.

After pausing to let the crowd

vent, Fritz continued, saying that she didn't want a Wal-Mart in Peachtree

City either.

"We don't have the power

to say, 'Wal-Mart, go away.'" she said.

Mayor Bob Lenox and councilman

Robert Brooks had just mentioned that they, too, saw little choice but

to approve the project. So despite a request to table the matter from

council members Annie McMenamin and Dan Tennant, the plan was approved

3-2.

McMenamin and Tennant were

uncomfortable with the explanation of how traffic would flow in the area.

It was announced that the city's traffic consultants have finally approved

a traffic plan for road improvements that would make the store fall in

line with the city's traffic ordinance.

In July, the Planning Commission

denied the plan based on the recommendation from traffic consulting firm

Dames and Moore that the superstore would not meet the traffic ordinance.

Lenox said the key element to the consultants' approval was the addition

of a "through" lane that would allow westbound traffic to continue

through the intersection at Huddleston Road.

"That was the breakthrough

improvement that radically changed their estimates," Lenox said.

Eventually, it was explained,

that lane would merge with another lane before the road reaches the Wynnmeade

subdivision. The lanes would originally be separated by a concrete divider

at the Huddleston intersection although the state Department of Transportation

has expressed in the past that it won't approve such a traffic element,

Lenox said.

The concrete divider problem

was one of many appeals city and state officials made to the DOT commissioner

several days ago, Lenox said. The commissioner indicated he would take

the matter under consideration, the mayor added.

The Wal-Mart issue drew a crowd

so large that city employees brought in extra chairs just before Lenox

banged the gavel to open the meeting. As the meeting progressed, a crowd

gathered in the hallway outside and the meeting was paused to let those

people filter in.

Jim Williams, the city's director

of developmental services, explained the traffic solutions that were approved

Ga. Highway 54 from the new signal at MacDuff Parkway all the way to a

new signal at Willowbend Road will be controlled by a fiber optic network

to help traffic flow smoothly.

When some residents stepped

to the podium to comment on Wal-Mart, they expressed a number of different

reservations about the store locating on Hwy. 54 West across the road

from the entrance to Planterra Ridge subdivision.

Willis Granger, a former member

of the Planning Commission, said he didn't understand how the traffic

plan would work, considering that bridges over Line Creek and the CSX

railroad have only two lanes each for traffic.

"The next thing you know,

you're going to put traffic lights on the golf carts," said Jerry

Nazilo.

"It's magic that it [the

traffic study] has changed," said George Kadel, who served

on the West Village Annexation

Task Force.

Robert Brown asked if the Wal-Mart

traffic improvements were separate from those ordered so the adjacent

Home Depot store could be approved. Lenox said the Wal-Mart improvements

brought the price tag of the planned Home Depot improvements from $500,000

to $800,000.

Brown added that he worried

the resulting traffic would force some motorists to travel through Planterra

Ridge as a shortcut.

Several people expressed concerns

about whether emergency vehicles could cut through more traffic considering

there is difficulty serving the western portion of town already. But Acting

Fire Chief Stony Lohr said if the road was widened, it would allow emergency

vehicles to go around motorists and allow those motorists to get out of

the way.

"Even with an increase

in traffic, it will be as good or better than we have now," Lohr

said.

Only one person spoke in favor

of the Wal-Mart Superstore. Peachtree City resident Frank Hyde said he

wanted a Wal-Mart there so he wouldn't have to drive to Fayetteville like

he does every Saturday with his wife.

"I guess I'm in the minority

of one," Hyde remarked.

One of the conditions of council's

approving the Wal-Mart site plan was a concession by RAM Development that

none of the other parcels on Hwy. 54 between Line Creek Church and the

Wynnmeade subdivision can be developed.

To meet the traffic ordinance,

RAM must fund the traffic improvements and secure permits from the DOT

to perform those improvements. All that work must be completed prior to

the city issuing a certificate of occupancy for Wal-Mart or Home Depot.