Fayetteville developer Bob Rolader says there is no way he can build his proposed Argonne Forest subdivision as recommended by the city Planning Commission.

“I'll just have to let it go and let someone else take a shot” if the City Council goes along with the planners' recommendation, Rolader told The Citizen recently.

Council will have first reading of Rolader's annexation and rezoning request for 144 acres at New Hope Road and Ga. Highway 314 during its next meeting, June 21. The group usually meets first Mondays, but June's first Monday meeting was cancelled.

Rolader is asking for R-22 zoning on 127 acres of the parcel, a category that allows homes on lots as small as a half acre, and O-I (office-institutional) zoning on the remaining 17 acres, facing Hwy. 314. His plan includes putting an office park along the highway, with 152 homes in a subdivision lining both sides of New Hope Road.

Original plans called for 163 homes and a Planned Unit Development designation for the parcel (a PUD allows more flexibility in lot sizes), but Rolader pared down that proposal after commission members in a work session labeled it too dense. His plan calls for one-acre lots bordering similar sized lots in neighboring subdivisions, with lots as small as a half acre in the interior of Argonne Forest.

But the plan is still too dense, commission members said recently. After approving office zoning for the highway frontage, the group voted to recommend R-30 zoning for the residential part, which would require minimum lot sizes of three quarters of an acre.

“I don't think we should annex this in and rezone it unless the density is what it would be in the county,” said Planning Commission member Segis Lipscomb. The city's land use plan calls for one-acre to two-acre lots in the area.

But other commissioners said they agree with Rolader's argument that the development of Fayette Pavilion shopping center's third phase directly across the street changes the assumptions under which the city drew its land use plan.

“This is a departure from our land use plan, which is not very old,” said member Myron Coxe, “but our land use plan was based on the idea that phase three would be O&I. If he developed this in the county, you would be looking at 144 lots, and he's at 152. It's probably something we could deal with here.”

Commissioner Allan Feldman said he agreed, but still thought R-22 too dense. “I could go with R-30,” he said.

Coxe and commissioner Kevin Bittinger voted for R-22, with Feldman and Lipscomb voting for R-30. Chairman Bill Talley broke the tie in favor of R-30.

“The land has just gotten too expensive [in the area],” Rolader told The Citizen. Speculators who are willing to sit on a piece of property for years are bidding up prices, he said, adding that he needs the density to make the project work.

He'll appeal to City Council to approve his original plan, and if that appeal fails, he'll drop his plans to buy the property, he said.

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