Friday, September 5, 2003
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Friday, September 5, 2003 |
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City moves toward stricter tree protection By JOHN THOMPSON
The city of Senoia is getting serious about preserving its greenspace. Burned by developers in the past, the city is looking at rewording one of its zoning categories, R-40-Greenspace option. The category was created to try and preserve the city's trees and gave developers the ability to build on smaller lots. "We've got to do something, because I don't want everything looking like the current developments," said Councilman Robert Belisle during Wednesday's workshop meeting. Belisle would actually like to see the greenspace zoning be changed into a different zoning district, instead of the developer merely having an option to use it. But in the short term, the City Council instructed city planner Bill Johnston to change the wording of the current zoning category. The open space allows for a density of 1.1 homes per acre, but the council wants it changed to .9 homes per acre. "Actually, it will be an increase for the developers, since right now you can get a buildable area of .75-.80 homes per acre after you take out the roads and other things," said Belisle. The council also wants Johnston to eliminate several items that are currently allowed to be counted as greenspace, such as floodplains, detention ponds, wetlands, land that slopes more than 25 percent and utility easements. Johnston plans to have the rewritten ordinance ready for the Planning Commission to discuss at their Sept. 16 meeting. Once the ordinance is changed, Belisle would like to see the city look at establishing other zoning districts the could include cluster homes and areas for senior citizen communities. But, he believes the rewritten ordinance has to be approved soon, since the city is looking at dropping its development moratorium after the beginning of the year.
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