Gird your loins and prepare for battle: The war has been ongoing for decades throughout Fayette County. Investors and developers from far and wide swoop down and buy up swaths of land with their only intent, their only purpose, to maximize profit. Most of these investment companies have no presence in the county, have no stake in the current or future of the county, and have no care about the impact on local neighborhoods and already stressed infrastructure.
If you live on two-plus acres in Fayette County, this call to arms (speaking figuratively), is directed at you. Do not wait until bulldozers are in your back yard because the county fathers need to look out for the interest of their citizenry.
Believe it to be true, developers are creeping towards your quiet, rural home. The subject of this letter is speaking generally to all proposed high density development in the county, but specifically to the 212-acre parcel currently zoned A-R (agriculture-residential) with the requirement of five-acre minimum lot sizes. This property is bounded by Ebenezer Church road to the south; Country Trace to the west; Davis Road to the north; and Martha’s Cove and the Craft property to the east. For the truly technical people reading this, it is under Rezoning Petition 1257-16.
I expect someone will rebut this because there are 4.8 acres along Davis road currently zoned one acre (R-40); however; this artifact came about towards the end of a rezoning hearing six or so years ago. The developer correctly explained the parcel did not meet the required five acres, as did the remaining property. He then requested the non-conforming 4.8-acre lot be rezoned to one acre, which was approved without comment or debate. This ploy simply set the precedent for one acre lots in this part of the county.
Now let me tell you the funniest thing about this part of the story. The one acre lots in question came to be when the county took ownership of Davis Road, and when they established the appropriate right-of-way, this very narrow slice of land was formed.
A house could never have been built on this 4.8-acre sliver of land because nowhere along its length does it meet the width required for single family residences built in the county. So they took a 4.8-acre parcel of land which could never have one house, and turned it into four lots that can never have a house built on them. But they did get one acre lots introduced into this part of Fayette County. You have to laugh or you will cry.
Fayette County has had a land use plan for over 30 years. The current plan is scheduled to be the document of record through 2025. This plan requires that a subdivision built on minimum five-acre zoned land between Davis Road and Ebenezer Church Road can only be subdivided into 2-3 acres for every residential unit. Under this land use plan, the developer could have selected a total of eight different zoning districts, (R-pick-a-number zoning) and meet the intent of the current Fayette Land Use Plan.
This specific developer had a better idea. They selected to request rezoning from A-R to PUD-PRD. What did you say? Never heard of it? Most county residents had the exact same response. The appropriate research was conducted and it boils down to some fairly basic precepts.
Under the various “R” zoning districts the county lists differing minimum zoning setbacks, lot sizes, house sizes and lot width at building line. All of them have the same maximum building height. Under PUD-PRD, all of those minimums and even the maximum building height are blank. The developer has a blank canvas and I quote from the PUD ordinance to: “Encourage FLEXIBLE and CREATIVE concepts in site planning.”
So now the county has in its possession the concept layout for the proposed development, and one is probably sitting on the edge of their seats to find out how creative is the plan … well, here it is:
One four-acre lot, 20 two-three acre lots and SEVENTY one-acre lots. How is that for a good heaping, helping dose of creativity? Let’s build 91 homes and make 77 percent of the lots one acre lots in a community that has approximately 150 homes with an average of 10 acres per home within two miles of this development.
This blatant attempt to introduce high density housing to this part of the county needs to be denied by each member of the Board of Commissioners.
What can the citizens do to facilitate the eventual demise of this proposed development? There are a myriad of things that can be done. The first thing to recommend, in order to get your blood boiling and your brow creased, is to plug into your smart phone, (or go old school and pull out a county road map), and follow this road tour:
Drive down Ebenezer Road; turn east on Ebenezer Church; if your like, take side tours down Martha’s Cove, Bridger Point; Arnold and Hilred; continue to Lester and turn north; you have to look closely, after about a mile and quarter you will come to a gravel road called Davis which requires a turn to the west.
Davis is about 2.3 miles of graveled, tree-lined thoroughfare. About half way into Davis, you will find the rezoning advertisement. Stop the car and imagine that from two-tenths of mile behind your car to two-tenths of a mile in front of the car there are 15 houses adjoined to Davis Road and there are 22 additional houses you can see from the road. Then finish the journey seeing an occasional house every quarter of a mile or so.
If you are fired up now and wish to express your displeasure in this developer’s attempt to change the entire tone and texture of central Fayette County, these are some of the things you can do:
• Sign a petition that is circling the county for both the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of Commissioners.
• Contact the Board of Commissioners. Their contact information is found at: www.fayettecountyga.gov/administration/boc/.
• Important: Attend the Planning and Zoning Commission hearing addressing the rezoning petition on July 7, 2016, at 7 p.m. located in the Fayette County Commissioners Meeting Room in the Fayette County Government Building, located on Stonewall Ave in Fayetteville.
• Most important: Attend the Board of Commissioners meeting which will decide the fate of this rezoning request on July 28, 2016, at 7 p.m., at the same location.
As we do “gird our loins” to go into this battle, it is always beneficial for the troops to have a battle cry that they can rally around. The Texans had “Remember the Alamo”; George Washington’s forces used several but none as powerful as “Liberty or Death”; and of course one of the most famous battle cries was used by the Confederate forces during the Civil War consisting of screeching and howling called the “Rebel Yell.”
The battle cry for this effort will not cause goose bumps or bring patriotic tears to your eyes. But it is the salient point to deny the rezoning request: “Enforce the Fayette land use plan.”
Jack F. Smith
COL (Ret), US Army Corps of Engineers
Fayette County, Ga.
