On

again and off again, a 152-home subdivision and

17-acre office complex at Ga. Highway 314 and New

Hope Road is on again.

Fayetteville

City Council Monday voted to override Mayor Mike

Wheat's veto of its earlier approval of

annexation and rezoning for the Argonne Forest

development.

The

project "is not in keeping with the current

land use plan and we have no development

agreement in place with the developer,"

Wheat wrote in the veto letter he filed at City

Hall Friday.

Councilman

Al Hovey-King said all the points of a

development agreement were worked out verbally

before council approved the annexation last week,

but he admitted the mayor had a point in

insisting on a formalized, written agreement.

Lack

of a written agreement "did present a

concern" following last week's approval,

Hovey-King said. After city attorney David Winkle

outlined a formal development agreement Monday,

Hovey-King said he felt better about the process.

"This just really provides a significantly

greater level of comfort," he said.

Council

unanimously reversed the mayor's veto and, in the

same action, made the development agreement part

of the city's zoning ordinance.

The

action paved the way for developers Bob Rolader

and Brent Scarbrough to build 152 homes on 127

acres, plus a 17-acre office park.

Rolader

and Scarbrough agreed, among other concessions,

to pay all costs necessary to bring sewerage to

the site, to limit the number of office buildings

to 14 and the number of homes to 152, to build

homes of at least 2,100 square feet at a minimum

price of $225,000, and to plant a 30-foot tree

buffer between the homes and offices, with trees

at least two inches in diameter.

"We

agree to them in full," said Rolader when

council members questioned his willingness to

abide by the points of the agreement. "I

don't know of anything different that's happened

since last week except that it's been put on

paper," he added.

To

the mayor's contention that the development is

not in keeping with the city's land use plan,

council members admitted that's true - the

land use plan calls for homes, not offices, and

on one- to two-acre lots rather than the

half-acre to one-acre lots planned for Argonne

Forest. But Councilman Kenneth Steele said

developments surrounding the site have rendered

the plan obsolete for that area.

"The

county effectively is leaning toward going

O&I [office and institutional] up the 314

corridor," said Steele. "We have

mirrored the county's land use inside the city

limits."

Locking

in a large residential development at the key

intersection will block office and commercial

development from spreading up New Hope Road, he

added. "I'm very happy with it," he

said.

Fayetteville

leaders last year refused to annex phase three of

Fayette Pavilion because developer Stan Thomas

proposed to continue the intense commercial

development of phases one and two, while the city

favored office development there.

Office

development on the east side of 314 would have

provided a buffer between the commercial growth

and residential properties on the west side of

the highway, city leaders argued. "We would

have liked to have had the county enforce O&I

on the east side of 314," said Councilman

Walt White.

But

Thomas was able to develop phase three in the

county over the city's objections, and council

members have since expressed willingness to go

along with office development on the west side of

314.

Wheat,

who is out of town this week and unavailable for

comment, has continued to argue for residential

development on the west side and office

development on the east side of 314.

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