Concern

for several large trees on their building site

has delayed the start of construction for local

business people trying to get a new bank off the

ground.

"Those

trees have been there 80 years," said

Fayetteville Planning Commission member Allan

Feldman shortly before the commission voted to

table site plans for Southern Community Bank last

week.

Owners

hope to build a 14,000-sq. ft., two-story bank

building at Jeff Davis Drive and Jefferson

Avenue, and their plans include saving seven of

the 12 large pecan and water oak trees that

occupy the 2.08-acre site.

But

commission members want architects to uproot the

building from its proposed site and plant it

somewhere else if necessary in order to save

still more of the trees.

"You

have not made the slightest change in the

footprint of this building," said Feldman

when bank officials presented their plans last

week. Two weeks earlier, during a commission work

session, commissioners had asked architects and

engineers to find a way to save more trees.

Engineer

Billy Brundage of Integrated Science Engineers

presented new plans last week in which one

additional tree might be saved through creative

landscaping, but commissioners wanted more.

Commissioner

Segis Lipscomb said the company's efforts have

been good. "They've saved 57 percent of the

existing trees," she said. That's far more

than city ordinances require. "He's made a

good faith effort here to save some additional

trees," agreed commissioner Kevin Bittinger.

But

Feldman argued that the trees saved are the

smallest of the bunch, while the largest are

lost.

Brundage

said engineers and architects have previously

tried to work out several different layouts for

the project, but those designs all had flaws and

had to be rejected.

"This

is what we felt like was going to be the best

solution, and we've exceeded the tree protection

requirements," said Brundage. "We

looked at this honestly eight different

ways," added Dan Davis, also of ISE.

major concern, the engineers said, was reducing

any negative impact on neighborhoods that are

behind the bank property.

Bittinger

made a motion, which died for lack of a second,

to approve the site plans. In the end, the vote

was unanimous to table the plans until the

commission's August work session to give the

company time to either come up with a new plan,

or show the failed plans to commissioners and

convince them that the trees can't be saved.

Brundage

asked if commissioners had any suggestions as to

how the building could be placed to save more

trees. "We don't have an engineering

firm," replied Feldman. "We can't tell

you what to do with the building."

"Apparently

you are," Brundage shot back.

Gary

McGaha, who will be CEO of the new bank, said the

group of owners is under a time crunch as it

works to get open by next March.

Commissioners

said they will have a called meeting at their

regular work session Aug. 10, if necessary, in

order to get the project approved faster. The

next regular business meeting is Aug. 24.