Sunday, April 1, 2001

Car wash rejected

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Plans for a car wash on Ga.

Highway 85 in Fayetteville's Main Street district were dealt a blow this

week when the city's Planning and Zoning Commission voted to deny a special

exception request to operate in a C-3 zoning district.

The issue has been discussed

in several meetings leading up to Tuesday night's action, and the application

was tabled last month after attorney Steve Fincher, representing the developer,

presented a constitutional letter to the board.

In making the motion to deny,

commissioner Allen Feldman said that he is not against a car wash in the

area but found too many other factors that troubled him, mainly the fact

that it is a mostly outdoor business.

To get approval for the site,

behind Merlin's a few hundred feet off the highway, the applicants had

agreed to several conditions, including a redesign that would allow up

to 25 cars and restricting operation to daylight hours.

As for concerns about noise,

Feldman said that the city's noise ordinance would not apply since it

does not take effect until 10 p.m. Fincher said that whatever vacuum equipment

or other loud devices might be used at the proposed facility would not

be as loud as normal traffic on the highway.

The Main Street board had expressed

reservations about traffic problems that could result from cars exiting

the facility and turning north.

City planning director Maurice

Ungaro mentioned the possibility of right-in, right-out access at the

site, and Fincher quickly responded that no other businesses in the immediate

area have such a stipulation and it would be unfair and unacceptable.

Ungaro replied that customers would likely find such a design safer than

access from both directions.

Development plans for the car

wash were also on the board's agenda, but Chairman Myron Coxe pointed

out that those would be moot if the special exception were not granted,

so it was voted on first.

When Coxe initially asked for

a motion, there was a full minute of silence before he reminded the commissioners

that they must take some kind of action, since a 60-day window was about

to close. Sarah Murphy then moved to approve with the conditions mentioned,

but that motion died for lack of a second.

Feldman then moved to deny,

and the motion passed 3-1, with Murphy voting against. As a result of

that vote, the development plans were not voted on at all.

In other business, the commissioners

approved a variance request and revised elevations for Fayette Christian

School, clearing the way for a preschool and daycare operation at the

former A&T Market on Lanier Avenue and Jeff Davis Avenue.

The variance was for the city's

requirement of 150 square feet of outdoor play area per child, which school

administrator Phillip Woods said would allow the school to house only

a fraction of what can actually be accommodated inside the building. Woods

also said that granting the variance would let the school bring in more

children and still stay within state Department of Human Resources guidelines.

Woods told the commissioners

that, after stating at the March 6 workshop that the likelihood of reaching

a lease agreement with the property owners did not look good, the situation

improved a great deal within a few days and an agreement is now much more

likely.

A condition of the approval

was for access from Jeff Davis Avenu e to be closed for school traffic.

Woods said that is the school's desire as well.