Developer Brent Scarbrough withdrew his request to put a convenience store across Ga. Highway 85 from Starr's Mill before the County Commission had a chance to act on it last week.

The plan drew strong neighborhood opposition and a recommendation from the county planning staff that the rezoning request be denied, though the Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval.

In another controversial request, commissioners approved Frank Love's previously denied request to restore a lost phase from Jeff Davis Plantation subdivision off South Jeff Davis Drive.

Love explained that the 21 acres he wanted to add to the subdivision was part of the original final plat when zoning for the neighborhood was approved in 1987. The plat was changed in keeping with a deal to sell the land that never was finalized.

Five residents spoke in favor of Love's plan, and three spoke against it.

Commissioner Glen Gosa, who made the motion in December, unanimously approved, to deny Love's request, made the motion this time to approve it.

"It's difficult for me to make the motion because I was so adamantly against it the last time," he said. Commissioner Harold Bost said he, too, opposed the project in December. "I did not get the point that this was originally platted into Jeff Davis Plantation," he said.

Commissioners unanimously approved the change. Love plans to build 18 homes.

In other zoning action, commissioners:

Denied Arthur Stinchcomb's request to change the zoning of 55 acres on Ellison Road near Tyrone from A-R (single family homes on minimum five-acre lots) to R-45 (single family homes on minimum one-acre lots). Commissioner Herb Frady voted against the motion to deny, saying there are other subdivisions nearby with one-acre lots. But Bost, in making the motion to deny, said the property in question is surrounded by five-acre lots, with two-acre subdivisions across the street. "The road is a good split between the A-R and the R-70 (two-acre lots)," he said.

Commissioner Glen Gosa abstained from voting.

Approved Dennis Roberts' request to rezone 17.26 acres on New Hope Road from A-R to R-45. Bost said in contrast to the Ellison Road case, Roberts' property is surrounded by R-45 subdivisions. "I think that the R-45 is a proper zoning for this piece of property. It's consistent with the neighborhood," said Bost.

Commissioner Linda Wells voted against the motion, having offered her own motion to change the land's zoning to R-70 and deny the R-45 request. The one-acre lots that characterize the area were all approved before 1985, Wells said. "Since 1985 we have gotten smarter," she argued. "It's not compelling that we have to go back and do what was done in 1985."