The paving

of Sumner Road in Peachtree City will certainly bring the cars, trucks

and sport utility vehicles much closer to the back porch of Gale Botwick's

home on Hidden Springs.

She's willing

to live with the widening and paving of the narrow gravel road. But she

wants the city to commit to landscaping the area to limit the noise and

buffer her yard from the traffic.

The covenants

in her subdivision prevent her from erecting a privacy fence, so she can't

provide her own relief from the impending road.

"I don't

want to see it, smell it or hear it," Botwick said.

Botwick admitted

that the noise of gravel shifting under passing vehicles will be gone

once the road is paved. But she also anticipates more people will use

the road as a shortcut.

"It's

going to funnel traffic off a major highway," Botwick said, adding

that she wished the city had first approached residents about the plans

to widen the road. Now, she and other neighbors are getting involved and

meeting with city officials to get their questions answered.

Botwick's main

concern is getting the city to commit to properly landscaping the area

and setting aside funds to do so.

The paving

of Sumner Road is projected to provide relief for residents in the Smokerise

area, allowing them to use the stoplight at Sumner Road for access to

Ga. Highway 54. But right now, few use the shortcut since it's a gravel

road, and that keeps the traffic down, Botwick said.

Instead, vehicles

from Smokerise follow the paved portion of Sumner Road that hooks up with

Hwy. 54 at the Fayette-Coweta EMC building. There's no light there, making

it more difficult to get onto Hwy. 54.

Botwick's next-door

neighbor, Laurel Hart, also is worried about having adequate buffering

from Sumner Road once it's paved. Her kids play in the backyard and she

wants to make sure her children are safe.

"Nobody

uses it except for a shortcut. We might get five maybe eight vehicles

passing by in the morning," Hart said.

Part of the

problem with keeping Sumner Road away from Botwick's and Hart's backyards

is that the road is located on the edge of Peachtree City. Land to the

east of Sumner Road is actually outside of the city limits, and outside

the city's jurisdiction, so it can't be moved away from the homes when

it's widened and paved.

Since the state

Department of Transportation has agreed to partially fund the paving,

Botwick said the city should have some extra money left over that it can

dedicate to landscaping the area and reducing the impact it will have

on the area.

Hart noted

that for any other developer the city would require a landscape plan to

be in place before construction. But in this instance, the city isn't

playing by its own rules since a landscaping plan hasn't been prepared

yet, she added.