Approval of

preliminary plats is usually a routine item for the Fayette County Planning

Commission.

But Jim Wilson

said the devil is in the details, and expressed several concerns last

week with plans for a 39-home Vickery Lane subdivision on County Line

Road near his home.

The 173.2-acre

site of the subdivision is already zoned R-20, which allows subdivisions

with lots as small as one acre.

Developers

Brent Scarbrough and Robert Rolader presented a preliminary plat showing

locations of lots, which range in size from one to 17 acres, but Wilson

said he and other neighbors want to know where detention ponds will be.

"Our septic

tanks will be against the backs of their lots," said Wilson.

Although detention

ponds slow down the overall drainage from a subdivision, the ponds must

drain somewhere, Wilson said, adding he worries that a detention pond

could dump drainage water directly onto his septic field. He complained

that detailed information was not available on the preliminary plat, and

county engineers couldn't answer his questions either.

He also wants

to know about whether there will be undisturbed buffers between his and

his neighbors' two-acre lots and Vickery Lane's one-acre lots.

County engineer

Ron Salmons told The Citizen that such details aren't required for preliminary

plats, because they require expensive engineering studies. Once the locations

of lots are approved, then the studies are done and the information is

available.

In this case,

the drawings should be available in a couple of weeks, he said.

The Planning

Commission unanimously approved the preliminary plat and asked Wilson

and his neighbors to stay in touch with Salmons to get the details he

wants.

In other business,

for the second time in as many months the Planning Commission recommended

increasing the height of an existing communications tower.

Fayette County

commissioners agreed with the planning panel last month, and granted SprintCom

Inc.'s request to add ten feet to a tower on McDonough Road to make room

for its antenna and improve its service in that area.

This time,

SprintCom is asking for an increase in height on Ga. Highway 54 behind

the Publix shopping center, from 150 feet to 160 feet. Lawyer Jim Ney,

representing the company, said the addition will allow Sprint to put an

antenna at the top of that tower, to cut down on dropped calls and poor

reception along Hwy. 54 near Peachtree City.

The Planning

Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval.

County commissioners

will take up the request Thursday, Aug. 23 at 7 p.m. at the County Administrative

Complex.