By MONROE ROARK
mroark@thecitizennews.com

Developer Bob Rolader is meeting this week with residents next to the site of his proposed Deer Pointe development to address concerns that could hamper his efforts to have the property annexed into Fayetteville.

At his initial presentation last week to the Fayetteville Planning and Zoning Commission, Rolader talked with a number of residents as they pored over a drawing of what the 454-home development might look like.

Rolader is wanting to annex most of the land, which totals about 900 acres on Ga. Highway 54 on the west side of town, into Fayetteville and hook up the homes to the city's sewer system. He has proposed donating 215 acres to the city for use as a park or general open space, and he wants to give a large lake in the middle of the property to the city as well for use as a water source.

The Planning and Zoning Commission will consider the development plan again at its July 25 meeting, which is its voting meeting for this month.

Rolader said Monday that he is planning to meet with residents in the area later this week, and he is waiting to hear back from them as to when and where that meeting will take place.

Some concerns were aired last week about the location of the proposed development's recreation center, which Rolader had drawn near the entrance to the site and would be across the street from some existing residents who said they have no desire to see floodlights from a tennis court shining onto their property every night.

After stating at the meeting that he is quite flexible about the location of these amenities, Rolader is meeting this week to discuss some possibilities.

A few other issues raised last week included one resident's assertion that a lake on the property had been condemned. Rolader assured the commission and the residents that no such action had taken place.

As far as the city is concerned, Rolader said, the commission wants to hear an opinion from the city's Water Department concerning possible water sources derived from the property. Rolader has made contact with the Water Department, and a representative will likely be in attendance at next week's Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, he said.

The property's stormy history reared its head a couple of times during discussions at the recent commission meeting. It is part of a larger site that was annexed into the city in the 1980s, with more than 2,000 homes in the development plan. That action led to a deannexation by the state legislature and the election defeat of most of the City Council that voted on it.

Some residents who spoke to the commission last week said that they fought against the annexation back then and would do so again.

Rolader realizes that some people will be against annexation no matter what, but he hopes they carefully consider the alternative, which is development in unincorporated Fayette County, with more homes spread out over the entire site on septic tanks.

“Either way it happens, six months from now somebody's going to be putting streets in there,” he said. “The question is, do they want streets over the whole place or a lot more open space?”

City planning director Maurice Ungaro said Monday that the city is not officially involved in Rolader's negotiations with his potential neighbors. “That's in his court,” he said.

The city could send a representative to the meeting, Ungaro said, but there are no plans to do that right now and the next time the city considers the plan will most likely be next Tuesday's Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.