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County planning comm. approves requests

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Meeting for the first time in the new year, members of the Fayette County Planning Commission reelected Jim Graw and Douglas Powell as chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, on Thursday night.

Then, the five-member board appointed by the County Commission sailed through a half-dozen requests for rezonings and land-use exemptions, passing each of them unanimously.

Among the rezonings was one from Community Fellowship Christian Church on Ga. Highway 314 North at Highland Drive, near the Clayton County line.

Church member Darien Sykes said the congregation already owns the 7.31 acre site, now zoned a combination of Community Highway (C-H) and Agricultural Reserve (R-40). But the church wants to convert a former single-family home on the lot into a daycare center, which falls under the Office Institutional (O-I) zoning. In asking for the rezoning, church pastor the Rev. Jerome Dukes said his fast-growing, predominantly African-American congregation has been on Hwy. 314 for 10 years.

“God has truly blessed us in this location, and we want to give something back to the community,” he said.

Sache Jacks, who joked with commissioners that she’s better known at church as "Mama Jack,” implored the commission to OK the church’s daycare plan “for the children.”

“We believe this is God’s will and He has directed us to do this, to take care of our children,” she said.

The planners needed little more convincing, and approved the rezoning 5-0.

In other action Thursday, the Planning Commission greed to a revised final plat for the Tunis Trace subdivision, dividing one 7.84 acre tract into four single-family dwelling lots.

The request was made by Carl Christensen, a roofer who said he is trying to get into full-scale home construction. But the high cost of individual building lots in Fayette County makes it financially impossible for him to construct spec homes to show buyers that fall within his target price range, $250,000 to $300,000, he said.

"It’s tough for a small business owner like me to get started when you pay $90,000 for a tract of land and then have to build a half million dollar spec house,” Christensen said. "This will allow me to build on smaller lots and sell the homes for under $300,000, which I think I can do.”

Also Thursday, the Planning Commission:

• Approved a rezoning request from A-R to O-I for .799 acres on Ga. Highway 54 West across from Sumner Road. The property owner intends to convert the former single-family dwelling into office and training space for a heating and air conditioning repair company. Several previous homes along that stretch of the busy highway have been converted to commercial uses in recent years, county staff noted. As an extra condition, the owner was asked to improve the driveway access and provide adequate right of way for future road expansion, if necessary.

• Agreed to amend the revised final plat of Lee’s Mill Farms subdivision to make up for an oversight in the installation of a swimming pool. Homeowners David C. and Janet Roberts said a contractor erred in allowing their new pool to be built too close to the setback. Purchasing 1.045 acres from a neighbor will solve the problem, however.

Items of business approved by the Planning Commission last week are tenatively scheduled to be heard by the County Commission Jan. 27.