By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@thecitizennews.com

A public hearing on proposed impact fees for the planned $25 million Fayette County Jail will be part of Thursday night's Peachtree City Council meeting agenda.

Fayette County Commission is asking the cities in the county to collect the fees on each new home built to help offset the cost of the new jail. The estimates call for a $770 charge per home, according to the recently tweaked numbers.

The commission hopes the fee will fund about $1 million a year to help pay the debt for the jail. After the cities agree to collect the impact fee, the plan must be sent to the state Department of Community Affairs for approval.

The county also plans to assess impact fees on new businesses and industries. The fee would be based on the type of business and number of employees.

Meanwhile, council also will consider a $1 monthly fee tacked onto cell phones used in Peachtree City to help fund the city's Wireless Enhanced 911 System.

The current Enhanced 911 fee for regular phones, which is $1.50, probably will not change.

Council also will conduct a public hearing on the rezoning request on the 63-acre Cedarcroft tract of land. The developer, Ravin Homes, has asked that the property be rezoned as general residential (four units per acre) instead of the current general commercial designation. But at the last council meeting, Mike Rossetti, vice president of Ravin Homes, asked council to withdraw the request so the property could be developed commercially.

Council denied the request, instead postponing the hearing until the first council meeting in July to give the city time to review the results of a noise and vibration study that was performed on the area.

Activity on the nearby railroad tracks was the main reason the city decided to fund the study on its own, Mayor Bob Lenox said. The dispute is whether a proposed barrier to be erected by Ravin Homes would be sufficient to block the noise created by the trains.