Wednesday, March 21, 2001
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Wednesday, March 21, 2001 |
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Land use vs. historic house Owners of Fayette's 2nd oldest house want commercial rezoning for 5 acres next to Starr's Mill school complex By DAVE HAMRICK
A new land use plan for the area around Ga. Highway 74 at Redwine Road will get its first test Thursday, and the fate of Fayette's second oldest home is at stake. County commissioners, who approved the land use plan changes March 8, will hear a rezoning request for the historic May/Peeples house on the northeast corner. The request does not fit the intent of the plan, according to the county Planning Commission and zoning staff. Commissioners will meet at 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex. Charles Pailer III is asking for C-H (commercial-highway) zoning for Fayette's second oldest house and the five acres that surround it. The house and acreage are the only property left between the massive and expansive Starr's Mill complex of three schools and the two highways. Pailer's daughter Donna OKelley, real estate agent for the proposed development, told the Planning Commission earlier this month that construction of the school complex followed by approval of a 21.8-acre grocery shopping center, Plantation Centre, on the south side of Hwy. 74 directly across from her father's property have made it impossible to sell the property under its current agricultural-residential zoning. Also, she said, the home has been on the market since mid-1999 and no one has shown interest in buying it as office space, as the land use plan suggests. "We did not ask for all of this to come," OKelley told the Planning Commission. When she was growing up living in the historic home, OKelley said, the area was way out in the country. Now, with the school at next door and the shopping center coming, the home will be unlivable, she said. But the Planning Commission voted to recommend that the land be rezoned for offices, in keeping with the new land use plan. Although the shopping center was approved by the County Commission, there are 5.8 acres of land zoned for offices between the center and Pailer's land, providing a step-down, planning commissioners said. That fact makes the Pailer home more appropriate for offices itself, they 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. Pailer wants to market the land for about 40,000 square feet of retail stores, and place a septic drain field in the required landscaped buffer between the stores and the school complex. Tentative plans call for a restaurant in the Peeples home itself. About 25 residents attended the March 1 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. The septic system that would serve the shopping center would drain onto land that overlooks the school complex, and 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. Planning Commission members expressed sympathy with Pailer's plight. "This could happen to any of us," said commissioner 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. In other zoning business Thursday, commissioners will consider a request by the Landrum Family Limited Partnersihp to rezone 6.18 acres on Ga. Highway 85 just south of Price road for a self-storage facility. Current zoning is A-R (agricultural-residential), and the request is for C-H. The Planning Commission is recommending approval.
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