Friday, July 25, 2003

Revitalization planned for Fairburn block

By LINDSAY BIANCHI
Special to The Citizen

The 100 block of Golightly Street in Fairburn will be getting a whole new look. The eight lots which were offered on the open market were snatched up by Chinh Nguyen, a real estate investor who is looking to revitalize the area.

"I believe we will have a great success with these lots to provide affordable housing." Nguyen said.

Nguyen submitted his application for variances on lot size for the eight lots, seven on Golightly Street and one on Dodd Street, and received a thumbs-up from the Board of Zoning Appeals Tuesday night.

The existing lots were recorded May 20, 1959, and have grandfather status with an average lot size of 4,000 square feet and width of 50 feet. The houses that stand there now are in very poor condition, so much so, that City Administrator Jim Williams said he "wouldn't board his dog there!"

The new dwellings being planned for the existing lots are about 1,300 square foot homes with three bedrooms and two baths. Ideal as a first home, a vacation home or an empty nester, the quaint domiciles will have a midrange price of around $110,000.

In transforming some of these problem properties, Nguyen sees this move as an "extremely good and effective way to handle deterioration."

In addition to the houses on Golightly Street and Dodd Street, a variance request by Signature Communities for seven lots in the St. John's Crossing Subdivision was denied by the board. Plans to put side entry garages on these properties brought up some past dealings with the subdivision's developers.

When approval was given before for side entry garages, it was found later that several lots did not have the garages placed on the side as proposed. It was also a concern that these garages would become potential living spaces, converted into bedrooms and dens somewhere down the line, officials said. The board saw this as defeating the purpose of the side entry garage and the architectural plans of the development.