By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Concern for several large trees on their building site has delayed the start of construction for local business people trying to get a new bank off the ground.

“Those trees have been there 80 years,” said Fayetteville Planning Commission member Allan Feldman shortly before the commission voted to table site plans for Southern Community Bank last week.

Owners hope to build a 14,000-sq. ft., two-story bank building at Jeff Davis Drive and Jefferson Avenue, and their plans include saving seven of the 12 large pecan and water oak trees that occupy the 2.08-acre site.

But commission members want architects to uproot the building from its proposed site and plant it somewhere else if necessary in order to save still more of the trees.

“You have not made the slightest change in the footprint of this building,” said Feldman when bank officials presented their plans last week. Two weeks earlier, during a commission work session, commissioners had asked architects and engineers to find a way to save more trees.

Engineer Billy Brundage of Integrated Science Engineers presented new plans last week in which one additional tree might be saved through creative landscaping, but commissioners wanted more.

Commissioner Segis Lipscomb said the company's efforts have been good. “They've saved 57 percent of the existing trees,” she said. That's far more than city ordinances require. “He's made a good faith effort here to save some additional trees,” agreed commissioner Kevin Bittinger.

But Feldman argued that the trees saved are the smallest of the bunch, while the largest are lost.

Brundage said engineers and architects have previously tried to work out several different layouts for the project, but those designs all had flaws and had to be rejected.

“This is what we felt like was going to be the best solution, and we've exceeded the tree protection requirements,” said Brundage. “We looked at this honestly eight different ways,” added Dan Davis, also of ISE.

A major concern, the engineers said, was reducing any negative impact on neighborhoods that are behind the bank property.

Bittinger made a motion, which died for lack of a second, to approve the site plans. In the end, the vote was unanimous to table the plans until the commission's August work session to give the company time to either come up with a new plan, or show the failed plans to commissioners and convince them that the trees can't be saved.

Brundage asked if commissioners had any suggestions as to how the building could be placed to save more trees. “We don't have an engineering firm,” replied Feldman. “We can't tell you what to do with the building.”

“Apparently you are,” Brundage shot back.

Gary McGaha, who will be CEO of the new bank, said the group of owners is under a time crunch as it works to get open by next March.

Commissioners said they will have a called meeting at their regular work session Aug. 10, if necessary, in order to get the project approved faster. The next regular business meeting is Aug. 24.