Peachtree City's planning

director used broad strokes to paint a picture of what the Ga. Highway

54 West corridor could look like one day at an early November meeting

of the city's Planning Commission.

Last week, David Rast returned

with a fine brush to fill in the details of the Ga. 54 West Overlay District

plan. He showed commissioners the exact style of brick, the design of

street lamps, the color of awnings, samples of approved signage and the

preferred plants for landscaping the stretch of real estate, all in the

hopes that private investors will want to redevelop their property accordingly

over the next 10 years.

If approved by the council,

the proposed amendment to the zoning ordinance would create Peachtree

City's first "overlay" district and require that developers

adhere to the toughest set of design guidelines ever attempted in the

city.

A required public hearing on

the proposal is on the agenda for Monday's Planning Commission meeting,

7 p.m. at City Hall.

The enormity of the request

appointees to the board.

That proved especially true

when Rast explained that the Hwy. 54 West design guidelines are intended

to influence future development - and most importantly, redevelopment

of the city's exisitng commercial areas - far into the future.

"What we're hoping

to do with these guidelines is evolve them into a set of guidelines for

redevelopment throughout the city," said Rast.

As Peachtree City ages and

land suitable for development becomes more scarce, it will be natural

to reuse exisiting commercial properties for new uses. But many of the

city's oldest retail structures were designed under ordinances that

no longer exist or are outdated, Rast explained, and others were built

according to the standards established by Pathway Communities, which for

years was the Peachtree City Development Corporation.

"We have no developer

to watch over all these architects and builders to enforce design,"

Rast said. "We relied on Pathway for years to serve in that function.

"Sooner or later we're

going to be hit with a redevelopment proposal and we want to be prepared."

The guidelines were developed

using the recommendations of an advisory board, and early plans were to

have that group evolve into one that considers proposals for the overlay

district first, before they get to the Planning Commission.

Rast said requests for conceptual

site plans will continue to follow the same process, as they do now, and

come before the commission for approval. Because all the property being

considered for the overlay is already zoned commercial, that wouldn't

be a concern of the commission, either.

In theory, the design committee

would handle the enforcement of the architectural details before that

stage.

"That hasn't been

part of our job in the past," said commissioner Wes Saunders. "At

what point do we want to get in the process?"

Developmental Services Director

Clyde Stricklan and Rast both were uncertain that another level of beauracracy

is needed, though several on the commission seemed to welcome the extra

policing effort that would go into projects.

"That seems to be a reasonable

amount of oversight to me," said Saunders.

Ray Green suggested that the

planning commission would not have to worry about the specifics of plans,

if they pass a design review board. "How many times are we going

to beat it to death? It seems enough to let it go forward from there."

Stricklin said it was his impression

the commissioners would not want to be removed from that process. If so,

he wondered if a design review board should be available on call or a

standing committee.

Commissioner Dennis Payton

was firm that a new board be made as official and legally binding as possible.

"It this is going to be

a group that dictates the look of redevelopment of the city overall, then

it doesn't need to be an ad hoc advisory committee" of volunteers,

he said.

Rast said using the volunteer

committee to create the guidelines made sense, "But the next board

needs to have greater accountability."

The commission will take up

that issue again Monday night. The full proposal will hopefully be ready

for the City Council to consider sometime early next year.