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Rezoning request for county may be headed for F’ville

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

The largest residential rezoning application seen in recent years will be up for consideration at Thursday’s meeting of the Fayette County Planning Commission, but if history is any guide, the proposal likely won’t win favor.

And if the past holds any lessons, the next step for the proposal may be an annexation request to Fayetteville.

The tract under consideration Thursday night fronting Ebenezer Church is less than one mile from the Peachtree City limits.

Developer Dan Stinchcomb is asking the county to rezone four separate tracts totaling 268.05 acres fronting on Ebenezer Church Road to allow for 182 single family homes on one-acre lots.

Three of the wooded parcels are currently zoned A-R, or agriculture residential, while a separate parcel north of unpaved Davis Road is zoned R-40. Part of the land abuts Fayetteville’s city limits, with its sewer system and higher density zoning available.

Stinchcomb wants the entire tract rezoned R-50, which permits homes on one acre with septic tanks as long as they are on county water, which is available in that area.

Aaron Wheeler, the county’s chief planner, is urging that rezoning of the three largest tracts from A-R be denied, arguing that Stinchcomb’s plan “does not comply” with the county’s current land use map.

“For the most part, that area is five-acre lots minimum and we want to keep it that way,” Wheeler said.

But his staff is recommending approval of the Davis Road tract, with several conditions, since that rezoning is actually a step up, from R-40 to R-50.

Wheeler said should the development proceed, the county will likely address paving Davis Road, one of the last dirt roads in the area. But paving the road is not part of Stinchcomb’s rezoning application, he said.

The request is similar to other development projects Stinchcomb brought to the county about five years ago, when he was developing land along nearby Lester Road.

When the county balked at those plans, Stinchcomb threatened to sue, but eventually convinced the city of Fayetteville to annex the acreage, allowing for sewer hookups and extending the city limits westward past Piedmont Fayette Hospital.

Stinchcomb could not be reached for comment, and Fayetteville officials indicated they had heard nothing about desires to annex the latest tracts.

Wheeler said he was unaware of past efforts by Stinchcomb to develop land in that area of the county, and stressed that his office was approaching this request like any other.

“We’re not doing anything differently than any other rezoning we’d get from one acre on up,” he said. “If it’s submitted, we review it, make our recommendation based on its merit, and then the Planning Commission will issue their verdict,” he said. “That’s the way the process works.”

The Planning Commission meeting is at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Stonewall Administrative Complex.