Fayette County

commissioners were all set to adopt an updated comprehensive growth management

plan, but the state of Georgia pulled the rug out from under them.

The county

Planning Commission approved the updated plan Oct. 5, and the County Commission

had intended to approve it last week. But the state notified the county

Oct. 10 that it should delay the plan update until 2000 U.S. Census figures

are available.

The due date

for the new plan has been moved back to 2002, possibly 2003.

County officials

have been working under a state-imposed deadline to update the plan all

year, and commissioners expressed amazement that the state changed the

rules in the 11th hour.

"It scares

me that they want to come in and tell us how to plan, when this is indicative

of the type planning we get from them," said Commissioner Greg Dunn.

"They just figured out we had a census?"

Commissioners

have been vocal critics of the state's creation of the Georgia Regional

Transportation Authority, claiming the authority is empowered to usurp

the county's role in land use planning.

County planning

director Chris Venice said the Planning Department can still use the information

in the updated comprehensive plan to work on a required update of the

county's land use plan, but approval of the comprehensive plan will have

to await the new census figures, which may not be available for months.