By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com

Fayette County's growth strategy in south Fayette County is simple — growth is not encouraged — and it's likely to stay that way.

Though the project was on a back burner in favor of more pressing matters the last couple of years, county planners recently finished their study of land use in the southern part of the county, at the request of county commissioners.

The Planning Department's conclusion is that the current land use plan, which anticipates mostly residential and agricultural uses on parcels of five acres or more, doesn't need to be changed.

“I don't really know if we want to encourage that much development in the southern end at this time,” said senior planner Pete Frisina in a presentation to the county Planning Commission last week.

“I don't want to say that the area is totally undevelopable,” he said, “but let's just say that it has complications.”

Those complications are mostly environmental.

For instance, wetlands cover about 10 percent of the 27,800 acres included in the study, and additional land is in flood plain. Ground water recharge areas cover 2,976 acres, also about 10 percent of the total.

Septic tanks are a problem in all of those areas, and no sewer service is available in unincorporated Fayette. But of even more concern, said Planning Commission member Al Gilbert, is the amount of pavement that might come with development in the ground water recharge areas. “A greater concern I have is impervious surface,” he said.

The more such an area is developed, the more the land is covered by pavement and buildings so that water runs off rather than seeping into the earth to resupply the water table, he said.

Also, about 33 percent of the soils are classified as unsuitable or marginal for septic tanks. That doesn't mean development is impossible, but building lots should be much larger than in other areas, said Frisina, so that somewhere on each site enough suitable soils can be found.

County leaders also had asked the planners to consider whether there are enough stores in the area to serve residents' needs, with an eye to possibly increasing the commercial zoning in the area. Frisina said that respondents to a recent survey indicated they want to be within three miles of a convenience store and seven miles of a grocery store.

After drawing three-mile and seven-mile circles around the convenience and grocery stores serving the area, Frisina said about 13 percent of residents are slightly farther than three miles from convenience stores and about the same percentage have to drive more than seven miles for groceries.

“I don't think they're under-served in this area at this point,” he said.

Among other facts gathered in the study of the area, roughly one third of the roads — 27 out of 80 miles — are dirt.

Also, Fayette's two major waterways, the Flint River (forming the county's eastern border) and Line Creek (the western border), converge in the southern portion of the county. And all of their tributaries are compressed there as well, adding to the problems of wetlands and poor soils.

Because the northern part of Fayette has been growing much more rapidly than the south, Frisina said, the county has concentrated its efforts to provide paved roads and water service in the north as well. The southern part is served by only one water line, he said.

After Frisina's presentation, county attorney Bill McNally summed it up with a quip: “He's telling you all this to recommend that you do nothing.”

The Planning Commission will vote on that recommendation, possibly in June, after members have some time to go over the information in the study.