Charles Pailer

III is between a rock and a hard place ... actually between a school and

a shopping center, but that's the same thing, says his daughter, Donna

OKelley.

"We did

not ask for all of this to come," OKelley told the Fayette County

Planning Commission in an emotional appeal for approval of her father's

request for commercial zoning.

Pailer owns

the historic Peeples house, a two-story former farm house that occupies

the northeast corner of Ga. Highway 74 at Redwine Road.

When she was

growing up, OKelley said, the area was so far out in the country she couldn't

get a ride home from school with friends.

Now the home

is on a five-acre island, bordered on three sides by not just one school

but a three-school mega-complex. On the fourth side, the house is bordered

approved a grocery shopping center directly across Hwy. 74, though the

parts of the development closest to the house will be occupied by offices

rather than retail stores.

That fact makes

the Pailer home more appropriate for offices itself, Planning Commission

members 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.

The group also

voted 3-0-1, with Al Gilbert abstaining, to recommend changes to the county

land use plan that call for offices on the Pailer property as well as

other parcels in the immediate vicinity.

The County

Commission will consider that land use plan at its meeting Thursday at

7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex. The rezoning request will

go before the board March 22.

Pailer wants

to market the land for about 40,000 square feet of retail stores.

About 25 residents

attended last week's 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.

A septic system

that would serve the shopping center would occupy a green belt buffer

around the perimeter of the property. Since that land overlooks the school

complex, 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.

Dillard and

OKelley said the home has been on the market since September 1999, and

the only buyers showing any interest were looking for commercial uses.

Planning Commission

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

to any of us," said 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.