Starr's Mill LLC will go back

before the Fayette County Planning Commission Nov. 2 with its plan for

a shopping center and other uses across from Starr's Mill High School.

The group has already unanimously

voted against the project once, recommending that the County Commission

deny it. But the County Commission last week refused to act on the proposal

because the plans submitted to the commission were substantially different

from those previously reviewed by the Planning Commission.

Planning Commission and zoning

staff both recommended denial of the company's original request for C-C

(community commercial) zoning for 80 acres on Ga. Highway 74 just south

of Peachtree City. The land is on the south side of Hwy. 74, directly

across from its intersection with Redwine Road.

Drawings submitted last week

to the County Commission called for a combination of C-C and O-I (office-institutional)

zoning for about 26 acres where the company wants to build a shopping

center and offices. A church in the original plan was eliminated altogether

and the company offered to donate that land to the county as open space,

along with land designated for soccer fields.

Starr's Mill LLC, a Macon company,

originally proposed a 55,000-sq. ft. grocery store, plus about 117,000

square feet of other shops and restaurants on 26 acres. The plan was to

sell 15.2 acres for a church, build about 51,000 square feet of offices

on 2.8 acres and use 25 acres for soccer fields. The remainder would be

used for parking, buffers and a drain field for a septic system that would

serve the project.

The request was to change the

zoning of the church, shopping center and office areas to C-C and leave

the soccer fields in their current A-R (agricultural-residential) zoning

category.

During the earlier Planning

Commission meeting, Carl Westmoreland, representing the company, told

the group that the firm wanted to change its plan, but planning commissioners

said they must deal with the plan as submitted and unanimously recommended

denial.

Residents who stood in opposition

to the plan are not impressed by the firm's offer to donate the open space...

they're against putting a shopping center in that location, period.

Westmoreland said although

the county land use plan calls for low-density residential development

for the property, the area has changed in recent years and there's a need

for more shopping space. Developing the land as a residential subdivision,

he argued, would increase overcrowding in the school system.

"I'm not sure whether

it's reasonable to expect this property to develop in lots of two to five

acres," he said.

As currently zoned, the property

could hold fewer than 15 homes. If it were rezoned for a subdivision of

two-acre lots, it could hold about 35 homes.

Resident Pamela Kemp cited

statistics showing that crime follows commercial development, and also

questioned the idea of putting such a large commercial project on a septic

system.

"We have adequate shopping

for the population," she said. "There is no reason to rezone

this property."

In rebuttal, Westmoreland said

his project is the best use of the property. "It would have no impact

on the schools, would provide a lot of tax revenue and it's a piece of

property that's got no other reasonable, viable use," he said.

Planning commissioners said

the proposal is not in keeping with the county land use plan, which calls

for low-density residential development in the area.

At the request of the County

Commission, the Planning Commission recently conducted a thorough study

of the land use plan for the Starr's Mill area, commission member Fred

Bowen reminded his colleagues.

"There was absolutely

no doubt in our minds that that is a residential area," he said.

"It's not the place for any commercial activity."

If the Planning Commission

acts on the revised request Nov. 2, the County Commission won't consider

it again until Dec. 14. The commission's regular zoning meeting the fourth

Thursday in November is cancelled due to Thanksgiving.