Coweta County

Commissioner Leigh Schlumper has only been on the board for two months,

but is already putting her stamp on zoning issues in her district.

During last

week's commission meeting, the board approved a request to rezone a 23.6-acre

site at Ga. Highway 34 and Andrew Bailey Road from rural reserve to commercial.

The site features

128,000 square feet of space that will be used for retail, office and

service establishments.

But before

the rezoning passed, Schlumper added several conditions to make the site

greener and more attractive.

Schlumper said

the site needed to feature landscaped berms, along with several large

trees near the entrance.

Commissioner

Jim McGuffey agreed with the newest commissioner and said the county needs

to start looking at these issues on future retail developments.

A development

underway near the Andrew Bailey site also caused consternation from one

commissioner.

"I'd like

to see what happened at the Publix site prevented. They've just raped

that land," said Commissioner Lawrence Nelms.

Schlumper agreed

with Nelms and said she was working on some issues to make that development

more attractive.

Commissioner

Vernon "Mutt" Hunter agreed with the concepts, but said he would

abstain from the vote because he believed the conditions needed to be

in the county's ordinances before they were imposed on anyone.

"I'd be

happy to work with y'all on changing the ordinances," he said.