Friday, November 14, 2003

City approves subdivisions

By LINDSAY BIANCHI
Special to The Citizen

If it’s a Monday meeting in Fairburn, there must be a rezoning to consider.

This week, the Fairburn City Council focused its attention on a 15.5 acre tract of land off Malone Street, between Lane Drive and Valley View Drive.

Developers asked the City Council to rezone the site from R-2 Residential to R-3 Residential with a Green Community Overlay. The site is being built by Gaddy Construction Company and will be called Valley View Estates.

The request passed unanimously with three recommendations from the Planning Commission added at their October 7 meeting. First, the commission asked for a variance to upgrade the required buffers around existing houses on Lane Drive. The commission also asked for assurance of all code compliance from a registered civil engineer. Finally, all landscape and signage would have to be prepared by a registered landscape architect and also approved by City Administrator Jim Williams.

The development, which is fairly small with just 30 homes should not cause significant amounts of extra traffic, said Leigh Ann Green, a representative for Valley View Estates in a letter to the city earlier this year. After discussing water problems and preserving watersheds on the land, the council reminded every one of similar incidents where flooding had taken place. Not wishing to travel down that road again, Williams mentioned a "properly designed storm water management plan " which would have to be implemented.

Having resolved the zoning issues, the council quickly took care of several other pieces of new business. An increase in on-call pay for cable and water personnel from $40 per week to $50 per week which Williams said was "still below that of other communities" passed without question as did the on-call rate of electrical personnel from $50 to $60 per week.Ê

Two 911 resolutions met with similar unanimity for adding equipment that will locate cellphone emergency calls and readopting the current $1.50 fee to cover 911 calls. A police officer intern position passed as well with assurance that there was already money in the budget to cover it. The position is designed to give the Fairburn Police Department a chance to evaluate uncertified officers before recommending them for further training.

An inventory surplus property list of over a dozen vehicles and various machinery was approved for auction at the Nationwide Auction Center, something Councilman Melear said "we should have been doing for several years."

ÊThe meeting ended with comments from reelected Council members Frankie Arnold and Marian Johnson. "

I just want to thank you all for voting and putting me back in my seat and I thank you so kindly,” Arnold said.

Johnson thanked "everybody for their support" and added, "I'll be here a few more years."

Melear reiterated his feelings Monday night by thanking the citizens of Fairburn "for letting me serve these 10 years. I had a great time and I hope I have done something good for the city of Fairburn."