County commissioners

want to study the idea of creating special architectural standards for

the county's state highway corridors a little longer before deciding whether

to adopt the rules.

New standards,

called overlays, were among numerous changes in regulations the commission

considered last week.

Special standards

already are in effect for Ga. highways 85 north, 54 west, 314 north and

74 north, and the county Planning Commission has recommended that overlays

be placed on the remaining highway corridors.

Commissioners

tabled the matter until their Nov. 8 meeting.

"I have

a real problem with this," said Planning Commission member Al Gilbert

before casting the lone vote against the recommendation earlier this month.

"I think government sometimes steps beyond a role it should be involved

in. The people we're hurting are the small business people in our community."

In previous

discussions, other members of the commission have argued that the new

rules are aimed at balancing the rights of property owners with the need

for good planning.

Commissioners

also delayed action on the Planning Commission's recommendation concerning

a new "green space" subdivision zoning category as part of the

county's plans to comply with the state's green space programs.

Gov. Roy Barnes

last year pushed metropolitan Atlanta counties to adopt a goal of setting

aside 20 percent of their land as green space, and Fayette answered the

call by adopting that goal and accepting more than $700,000 the first

year to help facilitate it.

This year's

allotment for Fayette will be slightly less than $700,000, to be split

The new green

space category would allow developers to build homes on smaller lots in

exchange for setting aside permanent green space. But commissioners last

week said they don't want to create a situation in which developers can

"average" lot sizes and increase overall density.

They'll study

the rules and discuss them again Dec. 5.