Sunday, July 1, 2001
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Sunday, July 1, 2001 |
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Apartment proposal shot down
By MONROE ROARK
Fayetteville has plenty of apartments, according to the Planning and Zoning Commission. A rezoning request for a new phase of Cobblestone Apartments, off Ga. Highway 54 east, was recommended for denial by the commission at Tuesday night's regular meeting, to the satisfaction of several dozen nearby residents who came out to oppose the request. The 4.62-acre tract, on the east side of Cobblestone Boulevard behind the Amoco station, is currently zoned C-3 highway commercial but has no frontage on Hwy. 54. A representative of the developer told the commission that the proposed development, consisting of 32 two-bedroom units and eight one-bedroom units, would have much less impact on the area than the type of retail establishment that could possibly locate there. A traffic study showed that the apartment development would generate about one-third as many trips per day, on average, as a 40,000-sq. ft. retail store, he said. Also, the 45,000 square feet affected by the apartment buildings and parking space was far less than the 110,000 square feet possibly affected by retail use, he added, necessitating the removal of fewer trees. Previous arguments against the apartment development mentioned the possible impact on the county school system by additional units, but the developer representative said that these units typically generate school-age children only about 10 percent of the time. "This land has been for sale ever since it was annexed into the city 10 years," he said. "There's no chance of highway commercial development there without highway frontage." Although a large number of nearby residents attended, only two people spoke in opposition to the request. Both cited the present number of apartments in the city as being sufficient and expressed fear that their property values could decrease. Commissioners cited the city's land use plan, which calls for office-institutional development on the site, and the number of apartments already in Fayetteville, which Chairman Myron Coxe said is above the national average. Coxe specifically cited those two points when making the motion to recommend denial, which passed 5-0. The application will go before the City Council next month.
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