The lawsuit challenging Peachtree

City's Big Box ordinance was delayed Tuesday after all parties agreed

to give the city council a chance to vote on a site plan for an expansion

of the Kedron Village shopping center that includes a 125,000 sq. ft.

Target store.

The Big Box ordinance limits

retail stores to a maximum size of 32,000 sq. ft. except under special

circumstances.

The site plan will be placed

on the agenda for the city council's March 4 meeting and all parties

will be prepared to argue the case in court March 8 if necessary.

The site plan was denied by

the city's planning commission in October, but instead of appealing

the matter to the city council, developers Peachtree City Holdings and

FCD Development filed the suit in court.

Arguments in the lawsuit were

scheduled to begin Tuesday morning, but attorneys for the Lake Kedron

Community Association sought a dismissal of the case because the City

Council had not yet voted on the site plan.

Georgia law requires that all

administrative remedies be exhausted before such suits can be brought.

Because the developers declined to appeal the planning commission's

decision to the city council, the final administrative remedy hasn't

been exhausted, association attorneys argued.

Originally, attorneys for the

city and the developers agreed to waive that requirement, but Superior

Court Judge Christopher C. Edwards said he wasn't sure that was legally

possible.

After hearing arguments from

all parties on the issue, Edwards brokered an agreement to let the city

council get one more shot at voting on the site plan, which previously

was denied by the city's planning commission.

"I think there ought to

be a vote over there," Edwards said, adding that he cannot require

the City Council to vote on the Target plan. Edwards said having the matter

on a City Council agenda also gives homeowners opposed to the plan a chance

to intervene at the legislative level with the council before the matter

is taken to court.

The suit challenges the application

of the Big Box ordinance to the Kedron Village retail center since the

ordinance specifically applies to tenants and in this case Target would

actually own the building. The city contends its definition of tenants

includes any business occupying a building whether the building is leased

or purchased.

Attorneys for Peachtree City

Holdings and FCD Development have also argued that the site has an exemption

to the Big Box ordinance via a letter signed by former Peachtree City

Mayor Bob Lenox. The city contends that alleged exemption is not valid.

The developers also asked the

court to sanction the use of Georgian Terrace Parkway as an access road

for the new stores, but in court documents the city stipulated that would

be allowable, rendering the issue moot.