Though Peachtree City has no more land available that is zoned for apartments, the City Council still wants to seek a way to halt multifamily housing development where it is.

City attorney Rick Lindsey is working on wording a new moratorium on rezonings for apartments that would withstand any legal challenges from builders, following a lengthy discussion at last week's council meeting.

The city enacted a moratorium on apartments several years ago, but found itself over a barrel because of loopholes in its zoning ordinance and what Mayor Bob Lenox calls "the U.S. Constitutional right of a property owner to use that property."

There are several apartment complexes already in the city, plus an additional 399 planned for the west side and a planned senior-apartment facility at Crosstown Road and Peachtree Parkway which has been approved for some time.

The westside Line Creek apartments development was "grandfathered" as having been in the works at the time of the moratorium in 1995 and to resolve legal action by CR Partners and Ravin Homes.

At the time, commercial zones allowed apartments, but the city has since deleted apartment uses from commercial zoning categories in its ordinance.

The council discussion resulted from an agenda item to approve a legal settlement with Eric Edee, who had been denied apartment zoning under the moratorium. The city land use plan anticipates apartments as the most likely future use of his property at Ga. Highway 74 and Kedron Drive, but council had turned down his request for GR-10 (multifamily, up to 10 units per acre) zoning for part of the tract.

About 17 acres of the tract has already been zoned for apartments, but four acres in the middle was still zoned agricultural.

Edee sued over the apartment moratorium, and the city worked out a settlement agreement on advice of several attorneys, including Lindsey. Part of the agreement was that the four acres would be rezoned GR-10 to allow a spacious development; the city Planning Commission voted last week to recommend the rezoning.

Jim Williams, development services director, said the site plan for the complex was very good and that "excellent buffers" have been included as an ironclad part of the agreement.

The council approved the settlement agreement 4-1, over the objections of several citizens who spoke, with council member Annie McMenamin voting against.

She said she felt it was "a violation of our own ordinances" to make a rezoning part of a legal agreement without formal public hearings.

"I think it [the agreement with Edee] is the right thing," Lenox said.

"We have to decide when to fight, and when to fold our tents gracefully in order not to undermine the land use plan we're trying to protect."