The long road to the approval of Grove Park subdivision came to an end Dec. 6 when Fayetteville Planning and Zoning Commission approved the plan designed to construct 60 homes on Ga. Highway 314 near White Road. Developer Bob Rolader said concerns brought by neighboring residents in recent months had been addressed.

The rezoning request, submitted by developer Scarbrough and Rolader, pertained to the redesignation of approximately 19 acres on Hwy. 314 from C-3 to DR-15 to allow for the development of 60 single-family detached homes to be marketed to persons 55 and older.

The proposed DR-15 zoning is a higher density residential development than the Clairmont and Neal’s Trace communities behind it, City Planner Eldridge Gunn said in a previous meeting, but it is a less intensive development than what could occur under the present zoning of the property.
Gunn said Dec. 6 that city staff recommended approving the request.

Rolader contended for months that a DR-15 residential development would be a better fit than having the site developed commercially.

“This is an opportunity to create a neighborhood instead of a strip shopping center or a car lot or a convenience store with dumpsters and everything that comes with it,” Rolader said in a previous meeting. “We feel a residential use is more in keeping with the surrounding neighborhoods and with the city’s plans.”

Though few neighboring residents attended and none spoke at the the Dec. 6 meeting, they had showed up in mass at previous Planning and Zoning meetings to express numerous concerns about the development.

Addressing those concerns before commissioners Dec. 6, Rolader said he believed that those issues had been addressed in meetings with neighbors and through adjustments made to the project.

He said concerns about traffic flow, stormwater runoff and the size and pricing of houses in the development had been addressed.

The only issue not addressed, Rolader said, was the preference of some residents to have the site developed commercially rather than residentially.

Commissioner Kevin Bittinger made a motion that the request be approved with the condition that the same basic concept plan proposed by Rolader is the one that will be maintained throughout the development process.

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