and DAVE HAMRICK

[email protected]

County commissioners are expected

to take another look tomorrow night at the land surrounding Fayette County's

second oldest home.

A rezoning request for the

historic May/Peeples house at the northeast corner of Ga. Highway 74 and

Redwine Road was tabled at the commission's March 22 meeting.

The Planning Commission rejected

the request for C-H) commercial-highway) zoning, but approved office-institutional

zoning with conditions. That vote came after several dozen local residents

expressed their opposition to the proposed commercial development.

The applicants have argued

that recent rezonings in the surrounding area, including a 21-acre grocery

store/shopping center complex to be located directly across the highway,

make the house unlivable and the current zoning impractical. The house

also sits right in front of the three schools that make up the Starr's

Mill complex, which the applicants believe bolsters their argument.

After reluctantly approving

the rezoning of the shopping center a few months ago, commissioners approved

changes in the land use plan last month that according to staff and planning

commissioners, this request does not fit.

But Donna O'Kelley, daughter

of owner/applicant Charles Pailer III and real estate agent for the proposed

devlopment, says that the property has been on the market for nearly two

years and no one has shown any interest in buying it as office space,

which is what the land use plan now suggests.

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.

Opponents argued that if the

proposed septic system failed, the sewage would drain onto school property

and there would be no space for a backup system. Some also said that a

commercial development next to the school would compromise the safety

of the children.

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.

This item was also tabled last

month. The Planning Commission is recommending approval.

Robert H. Brooks, owner of

the Hooters restaurant chain, has requested rezoning from A-R to PUD-PRD

for the addition of 60 single-family residential lots to the Whitewater

Creek community. The Planning Commission and staff recommend approval.

Also under consideration relating

to that request is a proposal to add 60 lots and 16.84 of open space to

the existing Whitewater Creek planned unit development. Planning commissioners

and staff approved that also.

Clayton Carmack and Mukut

Gupta have requested rezoning of 40.55 acres fronting on Old Senoia Road

for an 18-lot subdivision. Staff recommended denial, and the Planning

Commission recommended approval with conditions.

A request is pending for rezoning

for O-I for 8 acres on Ga. Highway 54 West for a medical office. Staff

and planning commissioners recommended approval.

Another request for O-I rezoning

is for 0.63 acres at Hwy. 54 East and Plantation Drive, for an insurance/financial

planning office. That was also recommended for approval.

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