Wednesday, August 7, 2002
|
Wednesday, August 7, 2002 |
|
Georgia's top court overrules judge's order to rezone land commercial for Tyrone shopping center
By JOHN
MUNFORD
The Georgia Supreme Court has sided with Tyrone town officials in a legal dispute with a developer wanting to build a shopping center off Ga. Highway 74 with a 50,000-plus sq. ft. grocery store. The court reversed an order from Fayette Superior Court Judge Johnnie L. Caldwell Jr. to rezone the entire property in question as commercial for developer John Callaway and the property owners. In its ruling, handed down July 2, the court said Caldwell could only refer the matter back to the Town Council to have the property rezoned to another classification. "Courts have no power to zone or rezone property," wrote Chief Justice Norman S. Fletcher, quoting case law. "Rather, the 'power to zone and rezone property is vested in the county and city governing authorities.'" Part of the 74-acre tract in question is zoned agriculture-residential, and the court ruled that Caldwell's decision the zoning was unconstitutional was not in error. But a 22-acre portion that was zoned office institutional by the town council should retain that zoning because the developer failed to prove that the property was unmarketable for office space, the court ruled. Attorneys for Callaway and the property owners asked the court to reconsider its decision, but that motion was denied July 26. The property owner of the 22 acres had less than a month to "market" that parcel as office institutional before the litigation was filed in Fayette Superior Court, the Supreme Court noted in its decision. When the Town Council originally denied the rezoning request by Callaway, Town Manager Barry Amos said the project's scale was too big.
|
||