Wednesday, February 28, 2001
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Wednesday, February 28, 2001 |
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P&Z eyes Whitewater expansion, Starr's Mill By DAVE HAMRICK
Whitewater Creek developer Robert Brooks wants to add to the community. Fayette County's Planning Commission will consider Brooks' request for zoning to add 63 homes, 20 acres of open space and 30 acres of green space to the upscale south Fayette subdivision. He is seeking a change from A-R zoning, which requires that each building lot be five acres or more, to PUD-PRD (Planned Unit Development-Planned Residential Development), for 127.5 acres on Redwine Road, Bernhard Road and Troon Drive, on the northern edge of the subdivision. The commission meets at 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex. Its recommendations will go to the County Commission for a final decision March 22. Planning commissioners also will have a public hearing on proposed amendments to the county land use plan for the area around Ga. Highway 74 south and Redwine Road. Their agenda also includes a request for commercial zoning that would not be compatible with those proposed changes. Recent approval by the County Commission of a shopping center in the heart of the area prompted a review of the plan, and planning commissioners have said they still envision low-density residential development for the area. "Preservation of the existing land use intent" is the main thrust of changes, Chairman Fred Bowen said during a recent work session. But additional office and institutional uses are being contemplated in the plan, to provide a "step down" from the approved shopping center to residential properties surrounding it. "We had what we thought was a sound land use plan," said Bowen during a work session last week to review the proposed changes. "We revisited that land use plan a little more than a year ago and reasserted our belief that it was an adequate land use plan," he added. That plan called for no additional commercial development in the area. The Plantation Centre shopping center, to be developed by Starr's Mill LLC, a Macon-based firm, will have about 120,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, including a grocery store in the 50,000-sq. ft. range. Its approval changes things, Bowen said. Developers of the shopping center donated an additional 52 acres to Fayette County for green space, and that property will serve as a buffer between the shopping center and the Brechin Park neighborhood next door, planners say. Office uses abut the planned center along Hwy. 74, and senior planner Pete Frisina suggested that the land use plan also anticipate future offices on the north side of 74 along Redwine Road, and on the Pailer property, a small triangle of land at the front of the school complex. Owner Charles Pailer is asking that the zoning of the five-acre parcel be changed to C-H (highway commercial). Pailer wants to build a small shopping center, not offices, and that request also will be discussed Thursday. With the offices and the green space surrounding the shopping center, there will be no need for commercial development to spread along the highway, Frisina said. The only other change he suggested is to increase the expected density of residential development on seven parcels along the west side of Redwine Road just north of the intersection. The current land use plan calls for two- to five-acre lots for the parcels, but land next door, inside the Peachtree City limits, is zoned for quarter-acre lots, and a plan is in place for about a 250-home subdivision to be named Wilshire Place. Frisina suggested a plan calling for one- to two-acre lots for the parcels next to Peachtree City. Two- to five-acre home lots for a large parcel just north of the school complex on the east side of Redwine would continue to be anticipated under the proposed changes. An overall density of one home every two to five acres is the target for the entire area under the current land use plan. If the changes are approved, the plan will reflect conservation/green space uses on the 52 acres donated to the county. Also on the agenda is a request from owners Nancy Cooper and Mitchell Edwin Cooke for C-H zoning for 6.18 acres on Ga. Highway 85 south, for a self-storage facility.
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