and JOHN THOMPSON

[email protected]

Way back yonder before cell

phones and the Internet, DVDs and wars played out live onTV it took a

good 40 minutes or more to get from the heart of Peachtree City to the

airport.

Downtown? Make it an hour,

in good weather and little traffic.

Back then, Georgia Hwy. 74

the "gateway" to Peachtree City was a meandering two-lane blacktop

winding its way past cow pastures and old cotton fields. You had to slow

to 35 mph inside the Tyrone town limits, past the Masonic Lodge, the elementary

school, the Shamrock Cafe.

In the late 1980s, the highway

lords smiled upon western Fayette County, launching a project to four-lane

the road the 12 miles from Ga. 54 to I-85, and bypassing the heart of

Tyrone altogether.

Thanks to that fast and direct

link to the airport and downtown Atlanta, Peachtree City boomed in the

1990s. But except for some steady residential growth, Tyrone remained

mostly unchanged. And on the north end of the route, where it intersects

with the freeway, the city of Fairburn was stuck in a permanent no-growth

rut.

Today, as Peachtree City nears

"build-out," development along the rest of Ga. 74 is taking

off at lightning speed. In Tyrone, the town's first large-scale shopping

center anchored by a Publix supermarket is rising from the red clay, and

in Fairburn, fast-food outlets, apartment complexes and gas stations are

sprouting like wisteria at the I-85 intersection.

The growth isn't all on the

north end of town, either. South of Peachtree City, around the Starr's

Mill school complex, the county has rezoned land for shops and offices,

though construction has been delayed. The future of the corridor concerns

Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown, who recognizes that Fayette County's

economic well-being depends on easy access to the airport and the interstates.

The highway bisects the city's

industrial park, home to companies like Cooper Lighting that cite the

convenience of Hwy.74 as top reasons to locate here.

But Brown also realizes he

has little influence on what becomes of the road north and south of the

Peachtree City limits. So he's organized a meeting of leaders from each

of the jurisdictions theroad touches to begin talks on how best to manage

development and maintain traffic flow.

"It may be much ado about

nothing," Brown said. "But I'm trying to at least get us to

work out an agreement before it's too late on how the road should be developed,

what the alternatives are."

Brown recognizes that such

cross-jurisdictional highway talks are usually handled by the Atlanta

Regional Commission, but he said that planning agency is ineffective when

it comes to a local traffic situation.

"They've proven that 10

counties can't work together to solve a problem on the local level, like

this," he said. "What does some official in Gwinnett or Cherokee

really know about a highway in Peachtree City?"

The first meeting on Ga. 74

will be held Tuesday, April 15, at 5 p.m. at Peachtree City Hall.

Reps from Fulton County, Fairburn,

Tyrone and Senoia have agreed to attend. Fayette County was the only government

to decline the invitation, Brown said.

In a letter to Brown, Fayette

County Commission chairman Greg Dunn said the county was very concerned

with the Hwy. 74 corridor.

"Our concern, in fact,

moved us to contract with URS Corporation more than a year ago to perform

a comprehensive update to the entire county's transportation plan,"

Dunn said.

Dunn expects to get the consultant's

recommendations back in the near future and will then ask the cities for

input.

"While we appeciate being

invited to meet with you about our traffic woes, we don't believe that

our participation in studying the issue is appropriate at this time,"

Dunn said.

"I really don't have any

ideas to put forth," the mayor said. "This first meeting will

be just a meet-and-greet, an opportunity to get to know the players and

air some of the concerns."

The meeting is open to the

public. For more information, call the mayor's office at city hall, 770-487-7657.

The purpose of the meeting is to develop a joint strategy for resolving

traffic issues on Hwy. 74 from south Fayette to I-85. Representatives

from Fulton County, Fairburn, Tyrone, and Senoia will be in attendance,

along with members of the Peachtree City Council.

Senoia city administrator Murray

McAfee will be at the meeting and plans to bring up the issue of a desperately

needed traffic light at the Hwy.74 and Rockaway Road intersection.

"It's just real simple.

We need a light there,' he said.

McAfee is coming to the meeting

armed with a recently completed traffic study from Street Smarts, which

outlines the need for a light now.

McAfee has been working with

Peachtree City officials to fund a light at the intersection. DOT officials

have said it will cost $330,000, but that includes four-laning Rockaway

and including turning lanes.

"It's just ridiculous

to think that Peachtree City should pay that much for that intersection,"

he said.

Instead, McAfee favors a simple

$60,000 traffic light that Senoia and Peachtree City officials could work

to fund jointly.

McAfee thought the situation

might have been resolved a few months ago when a developer approached

Peachtree City about rezoning the property. In addition to building a

subdivision, the developer had planned to reroute Rockaway to align with

the traffic light at the Publix shopping center on Hwy.74.

But the Peachtree City Council

unanimously turned down the request. McAfee has learned the issue will

be discussed again by the council in the next month.

Officials at Tuesday's meeting

will also discuss other issues surrounding the busy highway and try to

find a solution to keep from having the highway becoming gridlocked.