Wednesday, August 29, 2001
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Wednesday, August 29, 2001 |
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County has questions on annexation for Tyrone By DAVE HAMRICK
Annexation requests from three Fayette cities drew mixed reactions from the County Commission in its first ever review of annexation requests. State statutes and case law in the past have left annexation decisions entirely up to the cities. But the Legislature passed a new law in 1997, House Bill 489, requiring cooperation between cities and counties on a variety of fronts. Among those was a requirement that cities submit annexation requests to the county governments affected and gather input as part of the deliberation process. A series of court cases failed to strike that provision from the law. Commissioners reviewed requests to annex almost 150 acres combined into Fayetteville, Peachtree City and Tyrone last week, and while they have reservations about the requests in Fayetteville and Peachtree City, commissioners said they don't have nearly enough information to render an opinion on one in Tyrone. The group voted to send the Tyrone request back to the town with a note declaring that they can't respond without a valid application. The application is not valid, they said, because the applicant, R.L. Jennings, has given no information on his plans for the 32.41 acres on Trickum Creek Road. Commissioners expressed serious concerns with John Wieland Homes' request to annex 36.1 acres next to Lakeside at Redwine subdivision into Fayetteville and add the land to the subdivision. "Fayetteville's watershed protection law is not as strict as ours," said Commissioner Linda Wells. Developers can build closer to streams under the city's rules, she said, and that fact will affect 10 lots in the proposed 36-lot development. Also, the developer is requesting R-22 zoning in the city, which allows half-acre lots and is a higher-density category than the Lakeside subdivision is in, R-30, requiring slightly larger lots. In past discussions, city and county leaders have agreed that density should be lower for city property that is closest to the county. And the county will lose tax dollars and impact fees on the property as it moves out of the county's fire protection district, yet still will have to provide emergency medical service to the residents, Wells said. Commissioners voted to recommend approval of the annexation with five changes: lower density for the development; the same zoning designation as Lakeside at Redwine; compliance with the county's watershed protection law rather than the city's; a requirement that the developer meet with the Board of Education and address concerns about the additional students who will come from the development; and a requirement that Wieland provide a signed and sealed survey and plat that match and comply with all the county requirements. The commission was more friendly to Wieland's request to annex 80.65 acres into Peachtree City to add the land to the Centennial subdivision, but did ask that the city stick with its original limit of 350 total homes for the subdivision. Commissioners also asked that the city require that a school site being donated by Wieland be kept as green space if the Board of Education decides not to build a school there. It's unlikely that the site will be suitable for a school, commissioners said, because traffic is expected to be very heavy on MacDuff Parkway. The cities now have 20 days to respond to the county's concerns. In addition to discussing the annexations, commissioners last week approved a rezoning request to allow SprintCom Inc. to increase the height of a communications tower on Ga. Highway 54 by 10 feet, from 150 to 160 feet, to allow its antenna to be placed on the tower. The county's policy generally has been to encourage multiple cell phone companies to use each tower, to reduce the number of towers needed.
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