Fayetteville

developer Bob Rolader says there is no way he can build

his proposed Argonne Forest subdivision as recommended by

the city Planning Commission.

"I'll

just have to let it go and let someone else take a

shot" if the City Council goes along with the

planners' recommendation, Rolader told The Citizen

recently.

Council

will have first reading of Rolader's annexation and

rezoning request for 144 acres at New Hope Road and Ga.

Highway 314 during its next meeting, June 21. The group

usually meets first Mondays, but June's first Monday

meeting was cancelled.

Rolader is

asking for R-22 zoning on 127 acres of the parcel, a

category that allows homes on lots as small as a half

acre, and O-I (office-institutional) zoning on the

remaining 17 acres, facing Hwy. 314. His plan includes

putting an office park along the highway, with 152 homes

in a subdivision lining both sides of New Hope Road.

Original

plans called for 163 homes and a Planned Unit Development

designation for the parcel (a PUD allows more flexibility

in lot sizes), but Rolader pared down that proposal after

commission members in a work session labeled it too

dense. His plan calls for one-acre lots bordering similar

sized lots in neighboring subdivisions, with lots as

small as a half acre in the interior of Argonne Forest.

But the

plan is still too dense, commission members said

recently. After approving office zoning for the highway

frontage, the group voted to recommend R-30 zoning for

the residential part, which would require minimum lot

sizes of three quarters of an acre.

"I

don't think we should annex this in and rezone it unless

the density is what it would be in the county," said

Planning Commission member Segis Lipscomb. The city's

land use plan calls for one-acre to two-acre lots in the

area.

But other

commissioners said they agree with Rolader's argument

that the development of Fayette Pavilion shopping

center's third phase directly across the street changes

the assumptions under which the city drew its land use

plan.

"This

is a departure from our land use plan, which is not very

old," said member Myron Coxe, "but our land use

plan was based on the idea that phase three would be

O&I. If he developed this in the county, you would be

looking at 144 lots, and he's at 152. It's probably

something we could deal with here."

Commissioner

Allan Feldman said he agreed, but still thought R-22 too

dense. "I could go with R-30," he said.

Coxe and

commissioner Kevin Bittinger voted for R-22, with Feldman

and Lipscomb voting for R-30. Chairman Bill Talley broke

the tie in favor of R-30.

"The

land has just gotten too expensive [in the area],"

Rolader told The Citizen. Speculators who are willing to

sit on a piece of property for years are bidding up

prices, he said, adding that he needs the density to make

the project work.

He'll

appeal to City Council to approve his original plan, and

if that appeal fails, he'll drop his plans to buy the

property, he said.

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