Wednesday, November 26, 2003

Conservation zoning doesn’t live up to billing

A new neighborhood will soon be built in Fayette County under the new conservation zoning. It conserves taxpayer’s money. It conserves the developer’s money in a big way. It looks good on paper. What is it NOT good for? The environment.

Conservation zoning allows a developer to build homes on much smaller lots than ordinary zoning would require as long as a certain amount of land is set aside for the county with the stipulation it won’t be built on.

In the case of the new neighborhood to be built off of Flat Creek Trail, the land which will be set aside is swampy or in the flood zone. It wouldn’t have been built on or used anyway. Any homes which would have had those areas far in the back of their plots would have left the land alone.

If the developer and the county and whoever came up with this faulty, but well-intentioned zoning idea truly cared about the environment, a decision would have been made to build fewer homes on this 185-acre tract and the swamp land would have still been deeded over to the county in the spirit of true conservation.

They would have held with the two-acre minimum lot size previously required due to the fact this land is in the county watershed zone.

Seventy-six $400,000-$700,000 homes will soon have large septic systems, in soil known to have drainage trouble, seeping into one of our county’s primary water sources.

Our county is apparently trying to save tax dollars. Counties are being required to set aside a certain amount of land for conservation. They are looking for ways to do this without having to put out public funds.

I don’t blame the developer for taking advantage of this zoning. He won’t have to deal with the swampy areas. He can put his large homes on smaller lots. The neighborhood will have an extra cachet since it’s supposedly all about conservation.

But let’s be truthful. This is all about money. It sadly has nothing whatsoever to do with conservation.

Denise Casey

Fayetteville, Ga.