When

GTO's Restaurant was annexed into Fayetteville a

few years back, the development rules were

different.

Now,

owners of the 1950s style drive-through

restaurant, on Ga. Highway 85 south, want to add

indoor seating, and it's probably going to cost

them.

"Anytime

you pull a building permit, you have to comply

with existing ordinances," city Planning

Commission Chairman Bill Talley told Larry Blum,

a contractor working with GTO's owners on the

addition.

Owner

Charles Oddo wants to add 370 square feet to the

restaurant so customers can come inside. Business

usually falls off during cold or rainy weather,

he told the commission during meetings last

month. At that time, the group tabled any action

on Oddo's proposed development plans to give him

time to address concerns over landscaping,

sidewalks and architectural standards.

At

this month's meeting last week, the Planning

Commission again tabled the matter, this time at

Oddo's request.

Oddo

built the restaurant before it was annexed into

Fayetteville, using county development standards,

which are different from Fayetteville's. The city

annexed the property, then later enacted a

special set of design standards for major highway

corridors.

Technically

those standards can be brought to bear on GTO's,

but Planning Commission members said they're not

going to enforce standards that would work an

"undue hardship" on the restaurant.

They could require that the owners remove part of

the parking lot, because the property has more

pavement than is currently allowed.

In

fact, they could require that the building be

reconstructed, but city ordinances allow them to

cut some slack. Oddo has to bring the building up

to current code only insofar as is

"practical."

But,

Blum asked the group during a recent work

session, what constitutes an undue hardship?

"Where does it end?" he said.

"When you're sitting up there, your

interpretation is going to be that it's

practical. When you're sitting out here and have

to bear the expense, it's not as practical."

The

cost of putting in sidewalks and additional

landscaping, building a new dumpster enclosure

and changing the restaurant's lighting may force

Oddo to abandon the idea of enlarging the

restaurant, Blum said.

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