It may seem as if the biggest thing going along U.S. 78 as it barrels past Stone Mountain on its seven-mile run to Snellville is the state-run project to dismantle the road's vexing reversible lane system and build a raised median.

But it's a tiny two-lane street proposed just north of that project that has residents of the Rainbow Estates subdivision revved up.

DALE DODSON/AJC (ENLARGE)

Vino Wong/AJC (ENLARGE)

Laura and David Keller say that if a proposed plan for a road parallel to U.S. 78 goes through, the view from their backyard swimming pool will be of Stone Mountain Highway.

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Residents in that subdivision and other homes near the road fear plans to build the new street connecting Hewatt and Britt roads will ruin their back yards, cheapen their homes and bring unwanted traffic, noise and intruders into their neighborhood.

It's a street most commuters on U.S. 78, also known as Stone Mountain Highway, will never use. Most won't even know it's there. But it will have a devastating impact on nearby homeowners, said Donald Hale, who owns nearly 3 acres, separated from U.S. 78 and the businesses that line it only by a thick row of trees.

"It will kill this subdivision," he said. "They're planning on coming in here, devaluing this property and then picking it up for nothing."

The project — actually two smaller projects that together will cost more than $3.6 million — is part of a larger plan for a series of parallel streets connecting signalized intersections along U.S. 78.

The idea is to take some local traffic off Stone Mountain Highway and make it easier for shoppers to reach businesses when the state Department of Transportation median project is complete, said Brett Harrell, executive director of the Evermore Community Improvement District.

The self-funded business group, which formed to find ways to enhance the median project to the benefit of businesses, has been planning the projects for years.

The Hewatt-to-Britt project is still in the planning stages, but funding has been secured, and the work is scheduled to be complete in 2010. A third project, involving a new street from Rockbridge Road to Davis Road, is scheduled to open in 2009.

Harrell has heard the opposition among residents near the Hewatt-to-Britt project. He expects some of that criticism will be reflected in changes to the plans once public comment, collected by the DOT in March and April, comes back.

"Some people don't see the value and just oppose it outright," Harrell said. "Others have what I think are really good constructive positive or negative comments."

What Harrell doesn't agree with is the belief among some residents that the CID is trying to ruin nearby residents' land or otherwise ignore their concerns.

"Who spends their money at those businesses? It's the people who live there," Harrell said. "We don't want these people to be upset with us."

It's not working so far. At least 32 residents of the area have signed a petition circulated by Jack Townsend. He argues the street isn't a sure-fire traffic fix but is a sure-fire way to reduce the quality of life around the home where he has lived for 55 years.

"I'm not especially wanting to move," he said.

David Keller, who lives on Rainbow Circle and said he would lose a chunk of his backyard under the proposed plan, said the street isn't even necessary. He believes allowing shoppers to drive from one parking lot to another among businesses lining U.S. 78 would accomplish what CID officials say they're trying to do.

If that's not possible, Keller said, he'd like to see the road scaled down to something like the narrow service drive that already exists behind a few of the businesses near his subdivision. The small road forces drivers to slow down and is clearly designed to serve only nearby businesses, he said.

The two-lane, sidewalk-lined road the CID has proposed would cost him part of his heavily landscaped backyard oasis and, he said, leave his family with a view of Stone Mountain Highway and nearby businesses while swimming in their pool.

Besides, he said, local residents already know how to cut between Hewatt and Britt by way of Bruckner Boulevard.

"We just see it as a needless way of doing it," he said.

Among business owners, the project has more support.

"The more traffic you have around your business, the more business you have," said Alex Roman, owner of the Amazing Cars dealership at Parkwood Road and U.S. 78.

Harrell said officials are open to changing the project to make it more accommodating to residents. One easy fix: taking out one of the sidewalks, cutting the project's footprint down by six to 10 feet, he said.

"I'm hopeful that the objections will be reasonably dealt with" once the plans are complete, Harrell said.