Plans

for a small shopping center with convenience

store/gas station and additional retail shops at

Ga. Highway 314 and Ga. Highway 138 will go to

the Fayette County Commission with a positive

recommendation from the county Planning

Commission.

But

the Planning Commission is recommending C-C

(community commercial) zoning for the 2.96-acre

parcel, instead of the C-H (commercial-highway)

zoning requested by John Woolard, who wants to

develop the project.

Woolard

said a dry-cleaning pickup location and an auto

parts store are among the tenants he hopes to

attract to the center.

C-C

zoning is more restrictive, excluding some of the

heavier commercial uses that C-H zoning allows,

Planning Commission members said. Woolard said

the C-C zoning would be fine with him.

County

zoning director Kathy Zeitler pointed out that

the center will have to be designed in keeping

with the county's special corridor architectural

standards, which cover Hwy. 314 and Ga. Highway

54. Woolard said he will comply with those

standards, which require a residential

appearance, though other businesses nearby do

not.

Those

other businesses are on the other side of the

Fayette/Clayton border.

In

a tie vote, the Planning Commission recommended

denial of Ronnie and Jimmy Alley's request for

industrial zoning to allow a truck body repair

shop on Walker Parkway off Ellis Road just north

of Fayetteville.

Commissioners

Jim Graw and Bill Beckwith voted against a motion

to recommend approval of the rezoning, and the

tie vote adds up to a denial.

The

1.32-acre property is part of a commercial

development, and Graw and Beckwith said they

didn't want to set a precedent. "Other uses

that might be permitted up there is what I'm

concerned about," said Beckwith.

Commissioner

Al Gilbert said the center has several businesses

that are industrial in nature, and new technology

has made auto body work a cleaner operation than

it once was. "I'm not sure that what he's

proposing isn't possibly an improvement," he

said.

"If

it's the wrong zoning, then let's change the

whole thing," said Graw.

Commissioners

said they might later consider recommending a

change in zoning laws to allow truck and auto

body work in commercial zones.

The

Planning Commission's recommendations will go to

the County Commission for its consideration July

27 at 7 p.m. at the County Administrative

Complex.

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