A rezoning

request to allow development of a convenience store at Seay Road and Ga.

Highway 92 was recommended for denial by the Fayette County Planning Commission

at its regular meeting last Thursday night.

The request

was to rezone 6.8 acres from A-R and R-40 to C-H (highway commercial)

to develop a convenience store, gas station and retail shops. "THG

[the developer, The Hyde Group] already has a piece of property adjoining

that is zoned commercial and has been since 1972," said attorney

Steve Ott, who represented the buyers' applicants.

Nearly 75 homeowners

in the area were on hand with petitions signed by hundreds of homeowners

who were against the petition passing.

The proposal

"is not in the best interest of the community. Instead, it will serve

to only fatten the pockets of whose who intend to build there," said

Brenda Henson, a homeowner and teacher at Whitewater Elementary School.

"My family has owned and maintained property as a private dwelling

place for the past 17 years and my parents for the past 35 years.

"I am

appalled at the lack of moral conscientiousness that the petitioner of

this rezoning request obviously has. As a private citizen, a landowner

in the community, a parent, an educator, and one who always exercises

the privilege of voting for our public community government representatives,

I deem it part of my responsibility as well as moral obligation to stand

up to those who would seek to destroy established family and community

settings," Henson said.

Also speaking

again the petition were Chester Nash, Bob McElroy, Charles Harp, Frank

Eubanks, and Ken Helms.

The petition

comes up before the county commissioners at their June 27 meeting.

In other Planning

Commission business:

Preliminary

plats were approved for property on Action Drive, to be zoned R-72; property

on Brooks-Woolsey Road, to be zoned R-72; and property on Adams Road,

zoned C-S.

Petitions for

rezoning on Downing Court; development of a convenience store and gas

station on Ga. Highway 54 East; property on Helmer Road; and property

on Haddock Point were approved.