By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

The Ga. Highway 314 corridor should develop in the same way as Ga. Highway 54, Fayette County's Planning Commission has decided.

Faced with several requests that they change the land use plan to reflect office development along the highway north of Fayetteville, the Planning Commission last week voted to recommend that the county Board of Commissioners approve the same special set of architectural guidelines for 314 that the group approved two years ago for 54.

Residents who attended a recent Planning Commission work session said the current land use plan, calling for residential development along 314, is out of date. Recent widening of the road reduced the front yards of several homes along the road and made it impossible for residents, who now want to move, to find buyers for their homes, they said.

“If we are retained as residential, we are going to be hurt substantially, financially,” said resident Bob Chatham.

“Everything around us has been zoned either commercial or O&I (office and institutional),” he added.

But Chatham added that he is concerned for his neighbors who live in Black Rock Springs, Ansley Oaks, Silver Springs and other subdivisions. If homes that face the highway are allowed to convert to offices, the neighborhoods just off the highway should be protected with buffers and strict design standards, he said.

Commission Chairman Bob Harbison agreed, and suggested design standards similar to those on Hwy. 54, where offices are allowed on residential lots that face the highway, but strict standards are applied to give the offices a residential appearance.

“I don't really see that area [314] as much different than 54,” said Harbison.

The land use plan, a planning guide for future zoning decisions, lists the west side of 314 corridor as residential, and commissioners at one time favored keeping it that way, with office development on the east side providing a buffer between homes to the west and intense commercial development farther east.

But development of Fayette Pavilion's third phase, which is on the east side of 314, has changed all that.

Now planners are pushing for offices on the west side of 314 with homes starting just off the highway.

In previous discussions, county planning staff have suggested that Morning Creek may be the natural dividing line between offices and the resumption of all-residential development along 314.

Directly across from the Pavilion, developer Bob Rolader is seeking approval from the city of Fayetteville to put 152 homes on 127 acres along both sides of New Hope Road, with offices on 17 acres at the front of the property facing 314. City Council will consider that request during its meeting Monday at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

The county Board of Commissioners will consider the 314 overlay standards July 22 at 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex.