Friday, September 26, 2003

Residents want answers about Duncan Park

By LINDSAY BIANCHI
Special to The Citizen

The Fairburn City Council had its hands full during Monday's meeting when several people and their placard-holding children demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the situation at Duncan Park.

The park, which the city took over in July, has become something of an albatross around the city's neck.

"It's a regional park," explained Mayor Betty Hannah, pointing out that the city itself does not currently have the funds to return the facility to its former glory. Before Fairburn took ownership, the grounds were virtually neglected and left in disarray.

Questions were asked about how much was being budgeted for use on the park in the coming year. The answer, $100,000, was given emphasizing that this is mostly upkeep and landscaping with a small portion going to recreation.

Despite signs which said, "Let the children play," the park will remain a "passive park" used mostly for picnics and jogging.

After passing its new budget, the City Council was assailed again with a lengthy proposal to rezone 26 acres on the west side of Plantation Road to allow townhouses to be built there instead of apartments.

Attorney Doug Dillard argued his case for increased density on the site from 152 apartments to 215 townhouses. Even with 63 more dwellings than the previous design, Dillard felt that the owner-occupied townhouse units would be preferable to rental apartments which are in over supply in Fairburn.

"What we are trying to do is offer a compromise here," Dillard said.

The few changes to be made in the development standards did not sit well with Councilman Harvey Melear. Minimum lot width shrank from 50 feet to 30 feet and the minimum rear yard from 25 feet to 18 feet. The 1,200-square-foot minimum floor area was reconfigured from a two-car garage to a one-car garage.

"How many people are you going to sell a townhouse to that have one car?" Melear asked. "What we are going to have is a major problem of cars on the street. What's going to happen is they're going to take that one car garage and make a utility room out of it." Melear added that both cars would then be parked on the street.

Developer Jim Blankenship stepped forward to defend the idea.

"We're going to put a red light at [Hwy.] 74 at our expense. We're going to have to improve Plantation Road at our expense. That's probably close to $500,000 just in road repair. Taking that into consideration we've given as much as we can give," he said.

After exhausting every rationale, the townhomes were approved even though Melear wished to defer the motion until a later meeting.