By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com

If your pet gets sick or is hit by a car at night or on the weekend, what do you do?

Currently, unless your veterinarian is willing to meet you at the office, your only choice is to drive to the south side's only after-hours animal hospital in Riverdale.

But that situation will change soon if Dr. David Selleck and Dr. Mike Younker are successful in their rezoning bid before the Fayette County Commission tomorrow.

The veterinarians currently operate an animal emergency clinic in Riverdale, and they propose to move the facility to 1.57 acres on Ga. Highway 54 east, just west of Banks Road.

“We feel that this is long overdue in Fayette County,” said Selleck in presenting the plan to the Fayette County Planning Commission recently.

The Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of James Oliver's request to change the zoning of the land from R-45 (a single family subdivision category) to O-I (office-institutional) so he can sell the property to Selleck and Younker.

If the County Commission approves tomorrow, the pair plan to build approximately a 3,000-sq. ft. office building, and promise to give it “a residential type look. We want to be good neighbors,” said Younker.

Next to a residential subdivision, the land also faces busy Hwy. 54 and would be unsuitable as a home site, the doctors said. There is other land already zoned O-I in the county, Younker admitted, but added the vets hope to keep the cost of care at their facility within reach of Fayette residents. “Land that's already zoned O-I is so expensive that we would have to charge what we feel is too much for emergency vet care,” he said.

There would be a sign identifying the office, but “nothing flashy,” said Younker. Clients will be coming to the clinic in emergencies, and it won't have to advertise its presence very heavily, he said. “We're not trying to attract people from the road,” he said.

The clinic would cater only to small animals, and would be staffed overnight and weekends with at least one veterinarian and a crew of three to six, said Younker.

It would be collectively owned by as many of Fayette's 21 veterinarians as are willing to participate, the doctors said.

Although the county's land use plan calls for residential uses along that part of Hwy. 54, members of the Planning Commission agreed with Oliver's real estate agent that this parcel is not suited to that use. “That road is going to be four lanes one of these days, and she's absolutely right... no one's going to build a house on the property,” said commissioner Jim Graw.

Commissioner Al Gilbert said he would like the county Planning Department to take a look at that part of the 54 corridor and consider whether the land use plan should be changed.

The County Commission will consider the request during its regular twice-monthly business meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex.

Other planning and zoning items on the agenda include:

” A proposed change in the standards for telecommunications towers, to be sure tower builders can't pile up dirt into a mound and use that to increase the allowed height of towers.

” Proposed amendments to the county development regulations. The regulations cover a variety of technical requirements for developments, and county engineers have spent about a year rewriting them, strengthening or clarifying the language.

” Nancy Cooper's request for a change in zoning from A-R (agricultural-residential) to M-1 (industrial) for her 6.18-acre tract on Ga. Highway 85 south, just north of Price Road. Cooper wants to sell the land to Richard Lawrimore as a new location for his Atlantic Tape Company Inc., currently on Ga. Highway 54 east of Fayetteville.

His business has grown by leaps and bounds since it moved to Fayette, he said, with sales jumping from $2.5 million to over $9 million. Sales this January jumped $83,000 compared to January 1999, he added. He proposes a 40,000-sq. ft. building on the property.

Planning commissioners said Lawrimore's building plans are beautiful, and they want to see his project built in Fayette, but not at the spot requested. Land around the property is zoned for commercial and residential use, and industrial growth would be out of place, they said.

They unanimously voted to recommend denial.

” Johnie Williams' request to rezone 5.8 acres on Hood Road from R-70 (a subdivision category) to A-R to develop agricultural uses. Williams has asked that he be allowed to withdraw the request for now, so he can come back later with a request to change the zoning of his entire 78.42-acre site to agricultural-residential.