Balancing the

rights of business owners with the need for good planning is the sticking

point for Fayette County Planning Commission members as they consider

new architectural rules for business construction on all of the county's

state highway corridors.

"We're

starting, more and more, to tell people what they have to do," said

commission member Jim Graw as the group struggled with the proposed new

rules in a recent work session.

But it was

also Graw who stated the other side of the argument: "Eighty-five

south is going to develop into a mess if we don't do something out there,"

he said.

Special architectural

standards already are in place for Ga. highways 85 north, 54 west, 314

north and 74 north.

Following some

recent controversial rezoning decisions on Hwy. 85 south, the Planning

Commission began to discuss the idea of imposing special standards called

"overlay zones" there as well.

Out of that

discussion came the idea of applying the same standards for all state

highways, but some commissioners strenuously objected to that idea, saying

different areas have different character and should be considered separately.

Last week,

on the table for discussion was an ordinance deleting all the current

standards and setting up new, more general ones designed for all the areas.

But the Hwy.

54 west overlay, designed to create a residential appearance, has been

working well, commissioners said. And consensus was to leave Hwy. 85 north

as is, too.

Applying the

proposed new standards to the remaining state highways appealed to some

commissioners, but commissioner Al Gilbert suggested starting the overlay

zone for Hwy. 54 east at McDonough Road, and also leaving parts of Hwy.

85 south that are closest to Fayetteville without overlays.

"My concern

is for existing businesses on 85 south," said Gilbert. Some of those

businesses might not be able to meet the strict standards of an overlay

zone when rebuilding after a disaster, he said.

"Some

of those people have been there a lot longer than some of us," he

said.

As for 54 east,

he objected to applying architectural standards to new office developments

on the south side of the road, when there are industrial properties on

the north side.

Other commissioners

said that it's common for businesses to have to meet new codes when adding

to or replacing buildings, and argued for uniform standards on both 54

east and 85 south.

Commissioners

agreed to disagree for now, and will come back for another round of talks

next month.