And DAVE

HAMRICK

[email protected]

Charlie "Lou"

Pailer has filed suit against Fayette County over its denial of commercial

zoning for his five-acre property next to the Starr's Mill school complex.

The land is

the site of the Peeples house, one of Fayette's oldest homes.

In the suit,

filed last week in Fayette County Superior Court, Pailer claims the land

doesn't have a reasonable economic use as currently zoned for office-institutional.

The property

is at the northeast corner of the intersection of Ga. Highway 74 south

and Redwine Road near Peachtree City. Previously, the property had been

zoned A-R (agricultural-residential). Pailer requested C-H (highway commercial)

but the County Commission in July granted O-I zoning instead.

Pailer is asking

the court to grant his rezoning request for the commercial designation.

He also is seeking general and special damages for inverse condemnation

and deprivation of his constitutional rights.

During the

July 26 commission meeting, Pailer said he has lived in the house since

1980, and enjoyed the rural atmosphere around the home until that was

ruined by development of the mammoth school complex, which surrounds the

home on three sides. The county's recent approval of a shopping center

across the street will make the home even less desirable as a residence,

he said.

"I'll

be looking right in the front door of that Kroger," he said. When

he bought the house, he added, the advertisement "said historic plantation

surrounded by countryside, not by a school."

He has tried

to market the property for offices without success, he said, and a commercial

and office appraiser testified that after studying the situation, she's

convinced there's no market for offices in that area.

A couple dozen

residents stood to show their opposition to the rezoning, and six spoke

against it, saying they represented hundreds of homeowners in their neighborhood

associations.

All were sympathetic

to Pailer's plight, but said they fear commercial development on the corner

in front of the school will present a danger to their children.

Donna O'Kelly,

Pailer's daughter and real estate agent, said her own son will attend

school at the complex. "If that kid would be in danger, I would not

recommend" the rezoning, she said.

Commissioner

Herb Frady argued in favor of Pailer's request. "He's entitled to

some use of his property," he said. "Mr. Pailer lived on that

property a long time. Some of your subdivisions were not there, the school

was not there ... he made it his home, and he's been impacted probably

more than this store will impact your property," he told the opponents.

But four other

commissioners said the rezoning is simply not in the best interests of

the county. "We do have to do what we feel is best for the largest

number of people," said Commissioner Linda Wells.