Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2005 | ||
Bad Links? | County fears Fville certain to annexBy J. FRANK LYNCH But some fear a vote against the plan will just open the door for Stinchcomb to seek annexation into the city of Fayetteville, which briefly abuts the property between Lester and Ebenezer Church roads. An annexation would connect the city to a much larger, 605-acre parcel north of Davis Road also owned by Stinchcomb thats been zoned for high-density R-40 residential since 1980. The annexation scenario isnt so far-fetched, observers say, because it fits a pattern for Stinchcomb, a controversial developer who in recent years has brought a series of doomed rezoning petitions to the county only to turn around and proceed with his plans by successfully annexing into the city. Planning Commission Member Al Gilbert summed up his opinion of Stinchcombs relationship with Fayetteville on Feb. 4, before voting to deny the request. I sit here in fear tonight that the city of Fayetteville is going to come in here and annex this land, he said. You know its going to happen, no matter what the zoning is. And its wrong, just wrong. Why do we even have a land use plan? Why do we go to the trouble? Fayetteville officials have repeatedly denied any efforts to expand the boundaries of the city. Stinchcomb was unavailable for comment. Under Georgia law, counties are mostly helpless in fighting annexations by municipalities. That decision falls to the City Council, who act on requests from individual property owners, such as Stinchcomb. We expect there will be an annexation petition at some point, but theres not a whole lot we can do about it except voice our opposition, said Commission Chairman Greg Dunn recently. As stated in his request, Stinchcomb wants to put 186 houses on one-acre lots; all but a small portion of the acreage up for review is now limited to five-acre lot minimums. In addition to the residential rezoning, Stinchcomb is asking for a commercial rezoning of 18.75 acres from R-40 to C-H (commercial highway). The tract fronts on Huiet Drive at Ga. Highway 54, just west of Smith & Davis Clothing. Stinchcomb wants to develop it as a 10-lot commercial subdivision. The C-H designation is outside of the countys future use plans for that area, and staff urged denial. But the planning board approved a rezoning anyway, to the lesser O-I (office institutional) category. The Stinchcomb rezoning requests arent the only items on Thursdays agenda expected to draw a crowd. The commission will be required make a final decision on another rezoning request after tabling the matter Jan. 13, and then again on Feb. 10. Clayton O. Carmack and Mukut Gupta of Crown Development are asking that 40.55 acres on Old Senoia Road be reclassified from A-R to C-S (conservation subdivision) to construct 18 single-family homes. The original recommendation of both the Planning Commission and staff was to approve the request subject to one condition. But then at the Jan. 13 commission meeting, adjacent property owners came forward to say the tract contained wetlands that werent being factored into the development plan. Among them was Dennis Chase of the Peachtree City-based Southern Conversation Trust, who backed up the neighbors claims. There arent too many people who could come in here and say something to make me change my mind about decision Id already made, but Dennis Chase is one of them, said Chairman Greg Dunn before tabling the rezoning and asking the staff to investigate further. Chase said last week that the environmentally sensitive areas of the parcel have since been identified. Also Thursday, the commission will continue discussion about changing regulations on parking vehicles for sale in non-commercial areas. The item was tabled at the Feb. 2 meeting after Commissioner A.G. VanLandingham called for a vote. As the policy is written now, no one can park a car in their driveway or yard with a for sale sign posted, VanLandingham said. The way this is written now, you cant park a vehicle anywhere. But the idea of dropping a regulation concerned Commissioner Linda Wells, who asked the county attorney to look into the matter. |
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