The county's first mediation over an annexation dispute came to a successful resolution this week as Coweta County and the city of Senoia agreed to settle their differences.

For the last two months, the city and county have been in negotiations over a 55-acre site on Rockaway Road that Senoia officials asked to annex.

Annexation requests by municipalities are now governed by House Bill 489, which require the governments to try and come to an agreement on how to prevent service duplication and work more effectively with each other. The county and cities agreed to a mediation process on annexations that goes into effect if number of homes or businesses on the property in question is to be increased by more than 25 percent.

The Rockaway Road property is currently zoned Rural Reserve in the county, which calls for a 1.6-acre minimum lot size. The city wants to zone it residential, which has a one-acre minimum lot size, a 60 percent increase.

County planner Robert Tolleson and Senoia public works director Leonard Thompson hammered out an agreement this week that has left both government agencies happy.

Tolleson told the Coweta County Board of Commissioners the agreement is what the county was looking for and features specific requests for the property.

Among the requests were:

ä All development on the property will be single-family housing.

ä A soil analysis is to be completed on the property.

ä A 40-foot buffer will be planted between the annexed property and the county property.

ä Lots that border the county property will have lot sizes of 1.6 acres instead of the city's one-acre sites.

ä Any lots that border the county property will have a depth of 350 feet.

ä Preliminary and final plats will be submitted to the county planner for approval.

ä The county planner will inspect the buffer.

Commissioner Vernon “Mutt” Hunter, who represents Senoia, said he is happy with Tolleson's recommendations and thanked the planner for giving the commissioners enough information to approve the annexation.

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