Peachtree City homeowners who've

fought a proposed expansion of the Kedron Village retail center since

August must have felt like David slaying Goliath last week when they got

word that Georgia Department of Transportation officials were willing

to consider adding another curb cut off Ga. Highway 74 into the project.

The hope: An additional right-in,

right-out access to the Kedron Village off the busy state highway would

eliminate the need to create a back entrance into the shopping center

off Georgia Park, across from their homes.

But that hope may have been

premature. A lawsuit filed against the city by developer Faison Inc. seeking

"vested rights" to proceed with the 265,000-square-foot addition,

including an access drive at the intersection of Georgia Park and Regents

Park, will have a court hearing on Tuesday in Fayetteville, regardless.

Not only is there little that

can be done at this point to halt the legal challenge, said City Manager

Bernard McMullen, Faison has shown little interest in considering any

traffic options other than the one original proposed when Kedron Village's

master plan was laid out more than a decade ago.

To lessen traffic on Peachtree

Parkway and Hwy. 74, shoppers will be funneled in and out of the shopping

village via an extension of Regents Park, which bisects Georgia Park behind

a present grove of trees.

But in the time since the roads

were originally designed, 250 upscale homes have been built along Regents

Park opposite the site where Target and four or five other "mid-sized"

retailers plan to locate.

The traffic access is one of

two key issues lawyers hope to settle next week, but city officials have

already said they do not intend to challenge Faison on the right to complete

the intersection.

The other concern is Faison's

claim that limitations imposed by the city's so-called "Big

Box Ordinance" do not apply to the Target site, because the Minneapolis-based

company will in fact own its building, rather than lease. The city's

code uses language that suggests limitations on "leases" to

large retailers.

"They claim the big box

ordinance does not apply," said City Attorney Ted Meeker. "But

we don't buy that."

Also at issue is a letter written

wouldn't apply to the Kedron project. That letter has no legal weight,

Meeker said, because Lenox did not have the authority to offer a "grandfathering"

of the site.

Just since the first of the

year, the members of the Lake Kedron Community Association convinced state

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland and state Sen. Mitch Seabaugh to intervene. The

lawmakers arranged a meeting with DOT officials and determined that an

additional turn-lane headed north was feasible.

A hasty meeting with McMullen

and homeowners in early February proved positive, but McMullen indicated

that there were still many concerns to address before the highway cut

could be considered a serious alternative.

"The city recognizes that

this is a very sensitive issue," McMullen wrote in a letter to the

homeowners' group. "Both a willing developer and willing citizen

participation is critical to successful implementation."

But since the meeting, McMullen

has indicated that Faison is not interested in a compromise.

"My understanding about

the DOT's role was that if a proposal were to come forward that was

agreeable to all parties, the state would would look at it," McMullen

said. "But there was no decision reached that was satisfactory."

Fayette Superior Court Judge

Chris Edwards is scheduled to hear the opening arguments from both sides

in the lawsuit Tuesday morning at the county justice center in Fayetteville.

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