By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Owners of 20 acres on the southeast corner of Beauregard Boulevard and Grady Avenue in Fayetteville will now approach City Council with their plans to build 54 homes in a “neotraditional” neighborhood at the corner.

Council will have first reading of the rezoning request Aug. 16 at 7 p.m. at City Hall, with second reading and a vote scheduled for Sept. 7, same time and place.

Fayetteville's Planning Commission voted 2-1 last week to recommend changing the property's zoning to accommodate plans for Apple Orchard subdivision.

Five conditions the commissioner recommended include requirements that the neighborhood have sidewalks at street level a minimum of five feet wide, that lots be at least 21,000 square feet and homes be advertised for a minimum of $170,000.

Owners Charles and Mary Alice Odom also are asking the city to waive a required buffer between Apple Orchard and the Nancy Lane neighborhood next door. Lots and homes will be the same size as the Nancy Lane homes, though the buffer is required because the zoning is different.

The Planning Commission denied the variance request after planning director Jahnee Prince informed them that city ordinances don't allow the group to waive buffers in such cases.

The Odoms propose 54 single family homes, a minimum size of 2,100 square feet, starting from $170,000.

Lots would average 11,700 square feet, about a fourth of an acre. A park is planned at the center of the site.

Sandwiched between commercial property to the east along Ga. Highway 85 and neighborhoods with larger lots to the west across Beauregard, the property is the ideal place for a “step down” neighborhood, a transition from the commercial to the less dense residential areas, according to Dan Odom, son of the applicants.

“We want to create a Main Street look,” he told the Planning Commission during a recent work session.