By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

When GTO's Restaurant was annexed into Fayetteville a few years back, the development rules were different.

Now, owners of the 1950s style drive-through restaurant, on Ga. Highway 85 south, want to add indoor seating, and it's probably going to cost them.

“Anytime you pull a building permit, you have to comply with existing ordinances,” city Planning Commission Chairman Bill Talley told Larry Blum, a contractor working with GTO's owners on the addition.

Owner Charles Oddo wants to add 370 square feet to the restaurant so customers can come inside. Business usually falls off during cold or rainy weather, he told the commission during meetings last month. At that time, the group tabled any action on Oddo's proposed development plans to give him time to address concerns over landscaping, sidewalks and architectural standards.

At this month's meeting last week, the Planning Commission again tabled the matter, this time at Oddo's request.

Oddo built the restaurant before it was annexed into Fayetteville, using county development standards, which are different from Fayetteville's. The city annexed the property, then later enacted a special set of design standards for major highway corridors.

Technically those standards can be brought to bear on GTO's, but Planning Commission members said they're not going to enforce standards that would work an “undue hardship” on the restaurant. They could require that the owners remove part of the parking lot, because the property has more pavement than is currently allowed.

In fact, they could require that the building be reconstructed, but city ordinances allow them to cut some slack. Oddo has to bring the building up to current code only insofar as is “practical.”

But, Blum asked the group during a recent work session, what constitutes an undue hardship? “Where does it end?” he said. “When you're sitting up there, your interpretation is going to be that it's practical. When you're sitting out here and have to bear the expense, it's not as practical.”

The cost of putting in sidewalks and additional landscaping, building a new dumpster enclosure and changing the restaurant's lighting may force Oddo to abandon the idea of enlarging the restaurant, Blum said.