A new land use plan for the

area around Ga. Highway 74 at Redwine Road will get its first test Thursday,

and the fate of Fayette's second oldest home is at stake.

County commissioners, who approved

the land use plan changes March 8, will hear a rezoning request for the

historic May/Peeples house on the northeast corner. The request does not

fit the intent of the plan, according to the county Planning Commission

and zoning staff.

Commissioners will meet at

7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex.

Charles Pailer III is asking

for C-H (commercial-highway) zoning for Fayette's second oldest house

and the five acres that surround it.

The house and acreage are the

only property left between the massive and expansive Starr's Mill complex

of three schools and the two highways.

Pailer's daughter Donna OKelley,

real estate agent for the proposed development, told the Planning Commission

earlier this month that construction of the school complex followed by

approval of a 21.8-acre grocery shopping center, Plantation Centre, on

the south side of Hwy. 74 directly across from her father's property have

made it impossible to sell the property under its current agricultural-residential

zoning.

Also, she said, the home has

been on the market since mid-1999 and no one has shown interest in buying

it as office space, as the land use plan suggests.

"We did not ask for all

of this to come," OKelley told the Planning Commission. When she

was growing up living in the historic home, OKelley said, the area was

way out in the country. Now, with the school at next door and the shopping

center coming, the home will be unlivable, she said.

But the Planning Commission

voted to recommend that the land be rezoned for offices, in keeping with

the new land use plan.

Although the shopping center

was approved by the County Commission, there are 5.8 acres of land zoned

for offices between the center and Pailer's land, providing a step-down,

planning commissioners said.

That fact makes the Pailer

home more appropriate for offices itself, they said. They voted unanimously

to recommend that the County Commission change the zoning of the house

to O&I (office and institutional) rather than C-H (highway commercial)

as Pailer has requested.

Pailer wants to market the

land for about 40,000 square feet of retail stores, and place a septic

drain field in the required landscaped buffer between the stores and the

school complex.

Tentative plans call for a

restaurant in the Peeples home itself.

About 25 residents attended

the March 1 Planning Commission meeting to make it clear they're opposed

to the project, and presented a petition bearing more than 100 signatures

of neighbors who agree with them.

The septic system that would

serve the shopping center would drain onto land that overlooks the school

complex, and any failure of the system would dump sewage onto the school

grounds, argued David Kuzusko, who lives nearby. And there would be no

space for a backup system if the first one failed, he said.

"This dense type of development

will not enhance this area," said Chip Gertsun. A designated spokesman

for several of the neighbors present, Gertsun is an officer in the Peeples

Elementary School PTO.

Having a commercial development

next to the school would compromise the safety of the children, Gertsun

argued, bringing a strong rebuttal from an indignant Douglas Dillard,

lawyer for Pailer. "The safety of these children ... 500 of them

as they gather at Mr. Pailer's back door ... what is wrong with this picture,"

Dillard said.

Planning Commission members

expressed sympathy with Pailer's plight. "This could happen to any

of us," said commissioner Jim Graw. "We have no control over

where [schools] go."

But the group said they believe

office development will provide a step-down from the shopping center on

74 to the surrounding neighborhoods.

"I would rather see O&I

because you can control the types of businesses going in there,"

said Graw.

In other zoning business Thursday,

commissioners will consider a request by the Landrum Family Limited Partnersihp

to rezone 6.18 acres on Ga. Highway 85 just south of Price road for a

self-storage facility. Current zoning is A-R (agricultural-residential),

and the request is for C-H.

The Planning Commission is

recommending approval.