By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Requests for annexation into Fayetteville from potential office developments near Fayette Community Hospital continue to roll in, but city planners are taking it slow.

The latest request comes from Larry and Donna Mayfield, who want to sell their 4.9 acres next to the Apex Medical Building, just west of the hospital, to Dr. Gerald Goldklang for use as yet another medical office building.

City officials already have tabled similar requests from Hayes Development Corp. and Fayette Dental Aesthetics while they study the idea of writing special design standards for the Ga. Highway 54 hospital area.

“Around other hospitals around the metro area they have a hodgepodge of development,” said chief planner Jahnee Prince. “The look ought to match the quality of what's out there.”

But consultants have suggested developing a new zoning category for use in the area, instead of using the “overlay” concept, Prince said.

An overlay, a special set of standards for a particular area, “would necessitate drawing boundaries,” Prince pointed out. “We decided what we needed was a new zoning district that we could use out there, and we could apply it where it makes sense and not where it doesn't,” she added.

“That way, market forces can decide which projects want to be brought into the city in the hospital area, and that can change over time,” she said.

Consultants Rich Flierl and Maurice Ungaro are writing an ordinance creating the new district, along with Prince. The hospital zoning category will include a set of rules for buffers, landscaping, architectural standards, signage and other factors, including plans for providing interconnecting driveways for different parcels.

City Council members in recent months have been adamant about the inter-parcel access, saying the connecting driveways will reduce traffic on Hwy. 54, a major concern.

Prince said she hopes to have a draft ordinance from the consultants by next week or the next. The city Planning Commission will then refine the document and send it to City Council for consideration.

Planning Commission members last week said that when the Goldklang annexation request comes up for a formal vote Tuesday, they are inclined to table it until the new ordinance is in place, as they have done with the Hayes and Fayette Dental Aesthetics requests.

The group meets at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall.