In a 3-2 vote,

county commissioners last week approved new special architectural guidelines

for all of Fayette's state highway corridors.

Commissioner

A.G. VanLandingham said the guidelines, called "overlays," don't

spell out clearly enough exactly what's required of developers, and Commissioner

Peter Pfeifer argued that business people should have been consulted before

the rules were written.

But commissioners

Greg Dunn, Linda Wells and Herb Frady voted to make one minor change and

approve the overlays, saying the extra rules are needed to protect residential

neighborhoods along the highways from obtrusive commercial and office

development.

"The basic

purpose of this whole idea is to protect the residential zones,"

said Dunn.

Special standards

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

74 north. Commissioners approved the county Planning Commission's recommendation

that special rules be expanded to the remaining highway corridors.

"I have

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

before casting the lone vote against the recommendation from that panel.

"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."

Following some

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

Commission began to discuss the idea of imposing special standards there.

Out of that

discussion came the idea of applying special standards for all state highways.

Gilbert said

he is mainly concerned with small businesses along Hwy. 85, who would

have to rebuild in accordance with the new standards in the case of a

fire or other disaster.

"Some

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

said.

Pfeifer said

Gilbert was right, that business people should have input into such decisions.

"I would like to send it out to business groups for comment when

we do something like this," he said.

But Commissioner

Linda Wells said the overlay rules on Ga. Highway 54 west, the first ones

imposed in the county, have been successful at giving office developments

along the highway a more residential look so they fit in with the surrounding

homes.

"I want

to keep ... something that's already working very well for us," she

said in answer to VanLandingham's insistence that some passages needed

more editing.

The new rules

for Hwy. 74 south mirror those for 54 west, while rules for other areas

are somewhat different. In more commercially developed areas, the aim

is not to achieve as much of a residential appearance, said zoning administrator

Kathy Zeitler.