The controversial request to

turn one of Fayette's oldest homes into a shopping center will be the

first order of business to face the county's newest commissioner tomorrow

night.

Charles Pailer's request was

tabled from the April 26 meeting so that it could be heard by a full Board

of Commissioners. At that time, an election campaign was underway to replace

Commissioner Harold Bost, who had resigned citing personal concerns.

Peter Pfeifer has been elected

to replace Bost, and will sit in on his first meeting Thursday at 7 p.m.

at the County Administrative Complex.

Pailer is asking the commission

to change the zoning of five acres at Ga. Highway 74 and Redwine Road

from its agricultural-residential category to C-H, an intense commercial

category. The house and acreage are the only property left between the

two highways and the massive and expansive Starr's Mill complex of three

schools.

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.

The county's Planning Commission

has recommended that the zoning instead be changed to O-I (office-institutional),

a much less intense category, but Pailer's representatives argue that

the five-acre parcel can only be marketed under commercial zoning.

Neighborhood opposition to

the commercial proposal has been fierce. About 25 residents attended the

March 1 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.

The septic system that would

serve the shopping center would drain onto land that overlooks the Starr's

Mill school complex, and 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 schools 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.

Pailer's request tests a new

land use plan for the area around the home. Commissioners approved the

land use plan changes March 8, and the request does not fit the intent

of the plan, according to the county Planning Commission and zoning staff.

Pailer's daughter Donna O'Kelley,

real estate agent for the proposed development, told the Planning Commission

earlier that construction of the school complex followed by approval of

a 21.8-acre grocery shopping center, Plantation Centre, on the south side

of Hwy. 74 directly across from her father's property have made it impossible

to sell the property under its current A-R zoning.

Also, she said, the home has

been on the market since mid-1999 and no one has shown interest in buying

it as office space, as the land use plan suggests.

"We did not ask for all

of this to come," O'Kelley told the Planning Commission. When she

was growing up living in the historic home, O'Kelley said, the area was

way out in the country. Now, with the school next door and the shopping

center coming, the home will be unlivable, she said.

Planning commissioners said

that, although the shopping center across the road was approved by the

County Commission, there are 5.8 acres of land zoned for offices between

the center and Pailer's land, providing a step-down.

Panel members expressed sympathy

with Pailer's plight. "This could happen to any of us," said

commissioner Jim Graw. "We have no control over where [schools] go."

But the group said they believe

offices are needed between the shopping center on 74 and surrounding neighborhoods.

"I would rather see O&I

because you can control the types of businesses going in there,"

said Graw.

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