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Land-use plan the big winner as offices rejected near WHS

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

A Senoia businessman who was hoping to put 22 upscale office buildings on 20.66 acres of empty pasture on Ga. Highway 85 South at McBride Road was instead told Thursday night to find another use for the property.

The Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 to deny a request from developer Tom Reese to rezone the parcel, following the recommendation of both staff and the Planning Commission.

Reese argued that rezoning the land from A-R to O-I, or Office Institutional, would simply make it consistent with other large tracts in the area, where several churches and three schools are clustered.

The acreage has access from Hwy. 85 directly across from Whitewater Middle School, then wraps behind the old US truck stop to another access point at McBride Road.

When Reese said two lots within the development would be reserved as parks, Commission Chairman Greg Dunn pointed out that the green space is required by the septic sewer system that would serve the site.

Reese’s proposal also included installing a connector street between the two roads, with the office buildings lining each side. He said the O-I usage would provide a step-down buffer between the fueling center, now a BP station, and homes on McBride Road and Shamrock Drive.

Reese argued that without the O-I usage, the value of the land was greatly diminished because it would be hard to sell homes built on the site instead.

“Who is going to buy there?” Reese asked. “Nobody wants to live next to a gas station and three schools.”

But several of the homeowners who spoke in the public hearing prior to the vote said they’d rather see higher-density residential development as a buffer between their mostly five-acre minimum lots and the U.S Station.

The most houses that could be built on the property if it is rezoned for residential is six, on three-acre minimum lots, Chairman Greg Dunn pointed out.

Nearby residents, who packed a Planning Commission meeting a week earlier to voice opposition, also raised concerns Thursday about the increased traffic problems the offices might bring to the area.