Wednesday, August 22, 2001
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Wednesday, August 22, 2001 |
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Planners can't agree on highway overlays By DAVE
HAMRICK
Balancing the rights of business owners with the need for good planning is the sticking point for Fayette County Planning Commission members as they consider new architectural rules for business construction on all of the county's state highway corridors. "We're starting, more and more, to tell people what they have to do," said commission member Jim Graw as the group struggled with the proposed new rules in a recent work session. But it was also Graw who stated the other side of the argument: "Eighty-five south is going to develop into a mess if we don't do something out there," he said. Special architectural standards already are in place for Ga. highways 85 north, 54 west, 314 north and 74 north. Following some recent controversial rezoning decisions on Hwy. 85 south, the Planning Commission began to discuss the idea of imposing special standards called "overlay zones" there as well. Out of that discussion came the idea of applying the same standards for all state highways, but some commissioners strenuously objected to that idea, saying different areas have different character and should be considered separately. Last week, on the table for discussion was an ordinance deleting all the current standards and setting up new, more general ones designed for all the areas. But the Hwy. 54 west overlay, designed to create a residential appearance, has been working well, commissioners said. And consensus was to leave Hwy. 85 north as is, too. Applying the proposed new standards to the remaining state highways appealed to some commissioners, but commissioner Al Gilbert suggested starting the overlay zone for Hwy. 54 east at McDonough Road, and also leaving parts of Hwy. 85 south that are closest to Fayetteville without overlays. "My concern is for existing businesses on 85 south," said Gilbert. Some of those businesses might not be able to meet the strict standards of an overlay zone when rebuilding after a disaster, he said. "Some of those people have been there a lot longer than some of us," he said. As for 54 east, he objected to applying architectural standards to new office developments on the south side of the road, when there are industrial properties on the north side. Other commissioners said that it's common for businesses to have to meet new codes when adding to or replacing buildings, and argued for uniform standards on both 54 east and 85 south. Commissioners agreed to disagree for now, and will come back for another round of talks next month.
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