Fifty years ago, the acreage that became Peachtree City was rolling pastureland and wooded vales. Now it is shopping centers, subdivisions, highways and cart paths. In another 50 years, who knows what it will have become?
This year, a group of Georgia Tech graduate students spent the fall looking at the city’s major retail areas and on Wednesday afternoon presented their plans to the public and a good number of city officials.
While the city is not obligated to utilize any of the suggestions, the ideas will be considered. Peachtree City will update its comprehensive plan next year.
The students first visited Peachtree City in September, toured the city and met with residents and government leaders to get input on what their priorities were.
Led by architecture professor Richard Dagenhart, the students, working in small groups took
as their mission to map out how the city’s “Village Centers” can be retrofitted to continue to serve the needs of Peachtree City residents.
Glenloch, Braelinn, Aberdeen and Kedron were the villages studied. Each of which, in accordance with the founding fathers’ original vision, has a retail center.
It was those shopping centers the students scrutinized. Too much concrete and unfriendliness to pedestrians and golf carts were pointed out as common problems at all four. The students devised lanes to expedite the flow of traffic and accommodate both cars and golf carts. Most of the groups also introduced landscaping into the parking lots.
Each of the centers has its own unique problems, the students discovered.
The Peachtree Crossing shopping center in Glenloch Village is lacking an anchor store since the “baby Kroger” closed. The Tech students said it would be difficult to attract another larger grocer since studies showed the residents’ demand for grocery stores is already being met. They said a specialty store, such as Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, might be persuaded to come here.
They also looked at the center evolving in other directions entirely. It could become an office park or a mixed use development with commercial and residential properties. “Age in place” housing is another possibility.
Braelinn Shopping Center on Crosstown Road, currently undergoing a facelift, suffers from a lack of visibility from the street, the Tech students noted.
At Braelinn, more so than the other centers “golf carts are treated as second class citizens,” the students pointed out. “They enter from the back.” Bringing the cart path entry to the front was one of the students priorities for the future, as was giving the center more of a presence on Crosstown Road.
At the Aberdeen Shopping Center, Peachtree City’s
oldest, lack of visibility was also mentioned.
The students said, in the future, this property would be good for a corporate headquarters, perhaps. They also mentioned bringing Aberdeen Parkway into the site and creating a water feature.
The most economically successful of the centers the students focused on is Kedron, located on Peachtree Parkway North at Highway 74. The huge, unattractive parking lot is a major drawback, but the students said that could be alleviated by “parking orchards” with pervious surfaces such as gravel. Poor pedestrian connectivity is another problem at Kedron, the students noted, saying you have to get in your car and drive between the large stores.
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