Council agrees, votes 3-0 against relaxing the rule
City staff and the majority of those in attendance at the Oct. 1 meeting of the Peachtree City Council objected to a variance request that would have reduced the 50-foot buffer on four residential lots on Robinson Road. The council agreed with the objections and denied the request on a 3-0 vote.
Council members Kim Learnard, Eric Imker and Terry Ernst rendered the unanimous decision to deny the variance request that would have decreased the buffer from 50 feet to 25 feet. Councilman Mike King was out of town and Mayor Vanessa Fleisch recused herself because of her ties with Keller-Williams Realty, which was involved in the property deal.
The four residential lots along Robinson Road come with a city requirement that a minimum 50-foot buffer be established for any residential development adjacent to a community collector road such as Robinson Road.
Interim City Manager Jon Rorie previously said the buffer requirement — a mandatory feature of all collector roads in Peachtree City since the 1980s — was overlooked by city staff during the platting process for the four lots and the final plat was subsequently recorded in error.
Zenco Development representative Gary Lawson in the variance request asked that the 50-foot greenbelt buffer requirement be removed and replaced with a 25-foot landscape buffer.
“If the buffer stays in effect it makes the property essentially worthless,” said Lawson, noting that the plat had been approved and Zenco had already spend a large amount of money on the property.
A total of 13 residents spoke against the variance request. They were joined by city Planning Director Mike Warrix, who in a Sept. 23 letter cited the staff error pertaining to the 50-foot buffer being overlooked.
“To complicate the situation, the recorded lots were sold to applicant Zenco Development Inc., who subsequently submitted a building permit application and site engineering plans for the development of a home on Lot 1. A land disturbance permit was issued on May 12 and the building permit was issued on Aug. 27. As soon as city staff realized the subdivision was recorded in error, the applicant was notified and a hold was placed on both permits until the issue could be resolved,” the letter said.
Nearby neighbor Kirk Wagner, a surveyor, was one of the speakers to reference issues with the plat document. He noted that the required 50-foot greenbelt was listed on the plat form.
“Some of the required information is not on the plat,” Wagner said. “It was never buildable property from the beginning.”
Chuck Sanford, one of the speakers opposed to the variance, said the problem was “self-inflicted non-conformance by the person (Zenco) bought the property from.”
Another speaker, Pamela Kent, assessed a portion of the problem in terms of city planning staff trying to circumvent the rules.
Resident Bill Boswell near the end of the public hearing said there were issues with the seller, the buyer, the engineer and city officials. He asked the council to table the request indefinitely or vote no.
Fayette County Commissioner Steve Brown, a Peachtree City resident, urged the council to “get out of the variance business.” The former mayor said recent city councils have been too lenient on granting relief from strict zoning rules.
“Different City Council configurations in recent years have given out zoning variances like Halloween candy, everybody gets one, each time weakening the city’s land use and zoning ordinances,” Brown said in a letter to The Citizen.
A small handful of residents spoke in favor of the variance request. Among those was Smokerise developer Scott Bradshaw who said the issue was “beyond a problem and a variance is needed. If you don’t approve it you will be participating in regulatory taking and that could be very costly.”
The 3-0 vote to deny the variance came with essentially no discussion.
