Faison-City Settle Target Project Dispute

PEACHTREE CITY, GA-Hours before their Superior Court trial was scheduled to start in Downtown Atlanta, Faison Enterprises of Charlotte, NC and joint venture developer Peachtree City Holdings settled their four-month-old dispute over the increased size of the 10-year-old Kedron Village Shopping Center at Peachtree Parkway and GA 74.The developers agreed to shrink their planned 265,000-sf addition to 212,000 sf but got to keep the size of the estimated $10 million Target Supercenter at 125,000 sf. They had planned to grow Kedron center to 400,000 sf and 1,652 parking spaces. With the settlement, the suburban community of 35,000 residents, 35 miles southwest of Downtown Atlanta, got a smaller project and a revised entrance design to the shopping center.The developers’ lawsuit alleged Peachtree City’s big-box ordinance was unconstitutional because it limited retail ventures to 32,000 sf. That amount of space amounted to illegal development restrictions, the suit alleges. A court ruling could have affected how other nearby communities vote on new retail enterprises, a decision Peachtree City government wanted to avoid, brokers tell GlobeSt.com.City council members still have to formally approve the project before its 15-month construction period can begin, area retail brokers familiar with the controversy tell GlobeSt.com.The developers lost round one when the Peachtree City planning commission unanimously voted to totally reject the shopping center addition in February. They also lost round two March 1 when a Superior Court judge in Atlanta ruled the controversial project must first go back to city council for a final vote before the decisions by the council and the planning commission are tested in court. Atlanta retail brokers following the controversy tell GlobeSt.com Faison lawyers, frustrated by the planning commission’s ruling and annoyed by growing residents’ opposition to the addition, decided to take the issue directly to court instead of waiting for a city council vote.The developers maintain the Target store development should be exempt from the master plan’s bylaws because the Target project’s plans had started before the city ordinance was adopted in November 2000. A third 150,000-sf phase development at the shopping center is still on the drawing boards.