The Tyrone

Town Council has been ordered to rezone more than 74 acres bordering Ga.

Highway 74 and Tyrone Road for unrestricted commercial use.

That order,

from Fayette Superior Court Judge Johnnie L. Caldwell Jr., paves the way

for a retail shopping center that could be anchored by a Publix grocery

store. Caldwell's ruling was the result of a lawsuit filed by the property

owners and Callaway Land Company, the developer.

If the council

fails to "promptly comply" with the order to approve the rezoning

and the variances requested by Callaway, the plaintiffs will be subject

to recoup penalties, sanctions and damage awards, Caldwell wrote in the

order dated May 31.

Tyrone Town

Manager Barry Amos said Wednesday that the council was scheduled to discuss

the matter in executive session at its regular meeting Thursday night.

After the executive session a statement would likely be released, he indicated.

The order actually

covered two separate parcels of land located west of Hwy. 74 a 15-acre

tract north of Tyrone Road which was zoned office-institutional, and a

69-acre tract south of Tyrone Road which was zoned agricultural-residential.

The two separate lawsuits were merged into one before final arguments

were heard in the case.

The litigation

began after the council declined to rezone the properties to limited use

commercial last year. Caldwell noted that a Tyrone city representative

suggested to Callaway officials that the company should seek a limited

use commercial rezoning for the property even though no property in Tyrone

has that designation.

In the lengthy

order, Caldwell went into detail explaining almost point by point how

he based his decision in the case. The property was bordered by the existing

downtown district, a convenience store and at least one office development

in addition to the railroad tracks, he noted. Also, the plaintiffs marketed

the properties with their respective zonings and found no takers, he noted.

Attorneys representing

Tyrone had argued that the development would harm the public health, safety

and welfare, but Caldwell indicated that argument wasn't supported well.

The city's

arguments against the rezoning "do not rise to the level of making

it even fairly debatable that the existing zoning is reasonably related

to the public health, safety and welfare," Caldwell wrote.

The property's

central location between Hwy. 74 and Tyrone "renders the property

a natural commercial node," Caldwell wrote.

Caldwell also

ordered the city to approve all the variances Callaway requested with

its rezoning application.

Back

to News Home Page | Back

to the top of the page