Wednesday, January 17, 2001

Dunn to answer mayor's complaint

By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@TheCitizenNews.com

Greg Dunn says he'll answer Bob Lenox's latest letter concerning Fayette County's approval of a shopping center across from Starr's Mill High School as commission chairman to mayor.

"I don't really think I can answer him just as a constituent. When we got elected, I think we forfeited some status," said Dunn.

Peachtree City's mayor wrote a second letter to Dunn Jan. 5 after Dunn said publicly that he didn't intend to answer Lenox's Dec. 22 letter.

The Dec. 22 letter took a sarcastic tone in criticizing the County Commission's Dec. 14 approval of Starr's Mill LLC's plan for retail and office uses on 28 acres on Ga. Highway 74 at Redwine Road, calling it the worst rezoning decision ever made in the county.

"Just thought I would drop you and the other three commissioners who voted for it a thank you note for the new strip mall you so kindly approved at the southern entrance to Peachtree City," Lenox wrote to then commission Chairman Harold Bost.

"The Peachtree City Council, staff and citizens consider this to be the worst zoning decision ever made in Fayette County," the letter continues. "All I can say is thank God for Coweta County and Tyrone you can't get us on all four sides."

Bost was out of town when the letter was sent, and Dunn was named commission chairman during the commission's first meeting of 2001. At that meeting, commissioners discussed answering the letter, and Dunn said he didn't intend to do so.

"It would be more professional to just do nothing," he told The Citizen Tuesday.

Lenox followed up with another letter (appearing in its entirety on page 4A in today's Citizen) saying he didn't expect a response to the first letter, but specifically asking for a response to the second one.

"As one of your constituents, however, I would like to pose the following serious questions to you and I would expect the courtesy of a reasoned written response, as would any other citizen of the county," he wrote.

He posed 12 questions, expressing concerns about why the commission approved the rezoning request in spite of opposition from the zoning staff and Planning Commission, and whether the decision weakens the legal standing of the county's land use plan, since that plan precludes any commercial development on Hwy. 74 south of Peachtree City.

He also asks about any controls on the development to ensure a quality shopping center and to preclude any "big box" stores.

Dunn said Tuesday he is working on a response and, though he won't go "question by question," he will answer the concerns expressed in the Jan. 5 letter.

He is taking his time, he said. "I want to let him know in no uncertain terms how I feel, but I also want to retain a working relationship with him," Dunn said.

He voted in favor of the Starr's Mill zoning, he said, because he felt the shopping center, with extensive buffers, would be better for the county than a residential development would have been. The developer also has donated 50 acres to the county for green space, providing even more buffering, Dunn said.

"We have difficult choices to make and difficult issues to get over," he said.

He admitted the vote was a break with the county land use plan, and that it's possible that will set a precedent for more commercial zoning in the area, but added there won't be much, if any. "Most of the area is already developed," he said, though he added there may be some requests for commercial development at the same intersection.

"It would be very restrictive if we do add any commercial there," he said.