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City clears the path for more industry

Ben Nelms
bnelms@TheCitizenNews.com

The Fairburn City Council moved Monday night to clear up some of the complicated language in its industrial zoning ordinance. Council members also approved a proposed warehouse site on Bohannon Road and approved two new development authority members.

City administrator Jim Williams said some of the language in the the current zoning ordinance relating to M-1 and M-2 zoning districts is far too complicated, effectively preventing some firms from establishing businesses in the city. He proposed, and the council agreed, that suggested changes in the language be reviewed by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

“It’s incredibly complex so we’ve simplified it with respect to the interpretation of its uses,” Williams told council members. “Right now it takes a Harvard lawyer to understand these determinations.”

Explaining his point to the council, Williams used the example of two recent companies that would have made good additions to the city’s small business community. Both were prohibited under the language of the current ordinance.

“We want to encourage industrial and community development, not scare them away,” he said. “I feel that the ordinance should be less restrictive rather than more restrictive. It discourages industrial development as it is written now.”

Suggested changes in the ordinance will be taken up by the council once they are reviewed by the Planning Commission.

Another development issue on the agenda centered on the request to approve a 37.095-acre site on the southwest corner of Bohannon Road and Creekwood by property owner Simmons Vedder for the proposed development of a 600,000 square-foot warehouse. Williams told the council that the first phase of the proposed site plan called for construction of a 490,000 square-foot facility with access off Creekwood Road. The plan also includes an area on the site for a Phase 2 expansion of an additional 110,000 square feet.

The council approved the measure by a unanimous vote. The Planning Commission had approved the proposal at its Feb. 1 meeting.

Also at the meeting, the council approved the nominations of Sam Lott and Russell Starrett to fill vacancies on the Fairburn Development Authority and the Downtown Development Authority. Lott is a former chairman of the development authority and Starrett is the current chairman of the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals.