After nearly two hours of debate, the City Council of Peachtree City decided to vote on one of the two controversial Photocircuits variances up for approval at last Thursday's regular meeting.

Council unanimously approved the first variance, involving a reduction in the setback on Kelly Drive in exchange for Photocircuits eliminating a planned curb cut. The second one, which calls for a forward shift in the usable portion of Photocircuits property, reducing the setback on Dividend Drive and allowing for more buffer between the company and Planterra Ridge subdivision, was put on hold and sent to the Planning Commission for further review.

Members of the mayor-appointed Photocircuits Action Committee spent their entire allotted hour protesting the timing of the vote and what they said was an eleventh-hour presentation of a new Photocircuits site plan that caught them by surprise. According to Eric Snell, representing the committee and Planterra Ridge residents, the new site plan was introduced only days earlier, and the residents had only the previous night to consider it before the council meeting, which they did until the wee hours of the morning, he said.

The committee has been meeting the past few weeks with representatives of Photocircuits to address concerns about noise, pollution, odor, traffic and other possible impediments to the nearby residential development. Snell said that he and his neighbors could not support the site plan because they simply had not had enough time to study it. He added that the committee had not been given time to meet and make the kind of progress that Mayor Bob Lenox had promised would occur before a vote was taken.

In response to Snell's comments, Lenox said the variance issue was tabled at the March 18 meeting for exactly one month, so there was no attempt by anyone to sneak a vote in at the last minute this month. Steve Brown, another Planterra Ridge resident, prefaced his remarks by saying that when he learned Photocircuits had retained Atlanta attorney Doug Dillard in relation to this issue, "I knew we had a substantial case."

Brown went on to describe Dillard as perhaps the foremost attorney in the state on zoning matters. Brown, who was called down by Lenox on two separate occasions for what the mayor characterized as attacks on Photocircuits and the City Council, emphasized a point about Peachtree City's vulnerability to a possible disaster by showing what he said were Russian satellite photos of the city, showing the large number of homes near the Photocircuits plant.

After the public hearing was closed, Councilman Annie McMenamin asked to separate the two variance requests, and this was done. Lenox stressed to the audience or about 100 that both variances will go back to the Planning Commission as usual after the vote, and that the Planning Commission cannot really consider a plan until it knows the council's wishes on the variances.

Councilman Jim Pace, who said he was concerned about the previously suggested curb cut on Kelly Drive, added that he thought the new plan would enhance that street. The site has plenty of room for what Photocircuits proposes, and a variance is not even necessary, he said, although the variance is desirable for the Planterra Ridge residents, helping prevent another company from coming in and making things worse with an adjacent piece of property.

"You can't take people's property away from them," said Pace. "It's against the law." He added that he believed this issue was a simple one, and it was only being complicated because of the residents' feelings toward Photocircuits. Councilman Robert Brooks made the motion to approve the Kelly Drive variance with the planning staff's conditions:

There is never to be an access drive from Kelly Drive to the Photocircuits property.

A strip of the existing pavement next to the Kelly property line and west of the existing wall should be removed. That strip should be at least 20 feet deep and fully landscaped.

A landscape plan must be prepared to provide the proper mitigation landscaping next to both encroachment areas as a part of the overall landscaping of the redevelopment project.

After the vote, Brooks added that he was not in favor of the second variance at the present time. Pace said that whatever steps are approved should be done so as to look out for the residents as much as possible, and he believes the biggest buffer possible is the way to do that in this case.

In addition to keeping Kelly Drive looking as good as it can, the plan will not hurt the Dividend Drive portion of the property at all, he said.

Lenox commented that the site plan as presented is far better for the residents than some alternatives that could be considered. The council ultimately decided to officially table the second variance, sending it back to the Planning Commission in the hopes of revisiting it at the council next month.