Wednesday, March 7, 2001
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Wednesday, March 7, 2001 |
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P&Z recommends offices, not retail, for 74/Redwine By DAVE
HAMRICK
Charles Pailer III is between a rock and a hard place ... actually between a school and a shopping center, but that's the same thing, says his daughter, Donna OKelley. "We did not ask for all of this to come," OKelley told the Fayette County Planning Commission in an emotional appeal for approval of her father's request for commercial zoning. Pailer owns the historic Peeples house, a two-story former farm house that occupies the northeast corner of Ga. Highway 74 at Redwine Road. When she was growing up, OKelley said, the area was so far out in the country she couldn't get a ride home from school with friends. Now the home is on a five-acre island, bordered on three sides by not just one school but a three-school mega-complex. On the fourth side, the house is bordered by the busy 74/Redwine intersection, and county commissioners recently approved a grocery shopping center directly across Hwy. 74, though the parts of the development closest to the house will be occupied by offices rather than retail stores. That fact makes the Pailer home more appropriate for offices itself, Planning Commission members said. They voted unanimously to recommend that the County Commission change the zoning of the house to O&I (office and institutional) rather than C-H (highway commercial) as Pailer has requested. The group also voted 3-0-1, with Al Gilbert abstaining, to recommend changes to the county land use plan that call for offices on the Pailer property as well as other parcels in the immediate vicinity. The County Commission will consider that land use plan at its meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex. The rezoning request will go before the board March 22. Pailer wants to market the land for about 40,000 square feet of retail stores. About 25 residents attended last week's Planning Commission meeting to make it clear they're opposed to the project, and presented a petition bearing more than 100 signatures of neighbors who agree with them. A septic system that would serve the shopping center would occupy a green belt buffer around the perimeter of the property. Since that land overlooks the school complex, any failure of the system would dump sewage onto the school grounds, argued David Kuzusko, who lives nearby. And there would be no space for a backup system if the first one failed, he said. "This dense type of development will not enhance this area," said Chip Gertsun. A designated spokesman for several of the neighbors present, Gertsun is an officer in the Peeples Elementary School PTO. Having a commercial development next to the school would compromise the safety of the children, Gertsun argued, bringing a strong rebuttal from an indignant Douglas Dillard, lawyer for Pailer. "The safety of these children ... 500 of them as they gather at Mr. Pailer's back door ... what is wrong with this picture," Dillard said. Dillard and OKelley said the home has been on the market since September 1999, and the only buyers showing any interest were looking for commercial uses. Planning Commission members expressed sympathy with Pailer's plight. "This could happen to any of us," said Jim Graw. "We have no control over where [schools] go." But the group said they believe office development will provide a step-down from the shopping center on 74 to the surrounding neighborhoods. "I would rather see O&I because you can control the types of businesses going in there," said Graw.
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