A public hearing is set for Thursday on a Macon company's rezoning request

to allow a retail center with offices, a large church and a soccer complex

on 80 acres just south of Peachtree City.

The Fayette County Planning Commission will hear the request at 7 p.m.

at the County Administrative Complex, and its recommendation is scheduled

to be heard by the County Commission at 7 p.m. Sept. 28.

The site for the proposed "Plantation Centre at Starr's Mill"

on Ga. Highway 74 south is next to Meade Recreation Park, across the highway

from the three-school campus of Starr's Mill High School, Rising Starr

Middle School and Peeples Elementary School.

Starr's Mill LLC of Macon is requesting that the land's zoning category

be changed to community commercial from its current agricultural-residential.

Although the county's land use plan calls for agricultural and residential

uses in the area, Jim Wells, managing partner for Starr's Mill LLC, told

The Citizen he thinks the area has changed and that plan is no longer

practical.

The company's plan calls for 188,000 square feet of offices and stores,

including a 55,000-sq. ft. grocery store. Wells said several grocery chains

are interested.

Also on the Planning Commission agenda Thursday will be:

Sarah Banister's request for zoning that would allow 31 homes on 42.3

acres on New Hope Road. Integrated Science and Engineering hopes to develop

the property, and is seeking a change from the current category, A-R (agricultural-residential),

which requires a minimum of five-acre lots, to R-50, which requires a

minimum of one-acre lots and a minimum of 2,100 square feet per home.

Curtis Burton's request for a change from A-R to R-45, which allows a

minimum 1,800-sq. ft. home on one-acre lots, for 54.96 acres on Ga. Highway

279. Burton proposes to build 36 homes on the land.

A request from W.R. Clifton and D.B. Scroggins Jr. to rezone an acre on

Hewell Road from A-R to R-45 for a single home.

George and Brian Curreri and Beverly Koumoulas' request to rezone 1.89

acres on Ga. Highway 54 west at Brittany Way from R-40 (one-acre residential)

to O-I (office-institutional) for a medical/office building. The commission

also would have to act on the owners' request to remove the property from

the Fayette Villa subdivision so it can be used for the office building.

Two changes in the county's development regulations (see related story).