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Published Wednesday, November 18, 2009 in Local

Rezoning denied on 54, 16; OK'd on Lower Fayetteville

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Times-Herald

The Coweta County Board of Commissioners unanimously denied two rezoning requests near the intersection of Ga. Hwys. 54 and 16 Tuesday, and approved rezoning property near Lower Fayetteville Road and Ga. Hwy. 154 to a less intense category than what was requested.

The board also voted to deny two variance requests associated with the Lower Fayetteville/154 request.

The request for a medium-density residential subdivision along Neely Road was the first to be taken up by the commissioners.

First-district Commissioner Paul Poole made a motion to deny the request. It was seconded by Al Smith. The vote was unanimous.

Poole then made a motion to deny the request for commercial rezoning on adjacent property along Ga. Hwy. 16. That motion was also seconded by Smith, and the vote was unanimous.

Poole recused himself from the discussion of the Lower Fayetteville rezoning request because his family owns nearby property.

Fourth-district Commissioner Rodney Brooks said he felt the requested zoning was too intense for the area.

The request had been that 17.33 acres be zoned C7, Commercial Major Shopping District, for a retail shopping center that would include a grocery store and parking. Heavy Commercial zoning, C8, was proposed for 20.78 acres to include gas pumps associated with the grocery store, a carwash, an automotive service business, public storage, and continued operation of Country Gardens Nursery.

"I feel that C-8 and C-7 is too high of a commercial setting for this particular area," Brooks said. "I am asking the applicant if you would be willing to concede to a C-6 and adopt all of the recommendations placed on it by staff."

Dennis Drewyer, representing applicant Michael Cunningham, asked if the C-6 would allow the continued operation of the nursery.

"If it is already there and in operation, and it doesn't cease operation for more than 12 months," the business can continue to operate as a non-conforming use, said Assistant County Attorney Nathan Lee. No expansion would be allowed, however.

Drewyer said C-6 would be acceptable. That zoning allows most commercial uses, but no single entity can be more than 35,000 square feet.

The vote was 3-1, with Commissioner Tim Lassetter opposed.

Later in the meeting, the board considered two requests for buffer variances for the entrances to the commercial development.

On the Lower Fayetteville Road side, plans were to use the existing nursery entrance. Because the entrance is near the property line, there isn't room for the required buffer zone between commercial and residential property.

Because the residential property is heavily wooded, the Board of Zoning Appeals had recommended approval. The planning department recommended denial.

The owners of the adjacent property were notified of the request and didn't file any complaints or come to the zoning appeals meeting, said Zoning Administrator Angela White.

Brooks made a motion to approve the variance with conditions, but it died for lack of a second.

Commissioner Randolph Collins made a motion to deny the variance.

"I don't feel we need to use someone else's property to establish buffers," Collins said.

Smith seconded the motion, saying, "I just feel that we would be derelict in our duty to use an existing buffer that the applicant is not responsible for."

The motion passed with no opposition.

The other buffer variance was for an entrance on Ga. Hwy. 154. The entrance road "adjoins the back side of" the Candlewood subdivision, White said. One of the two adjacent property owners was opposed to the buffer variance, White said.

She said the planning staff was originally told the Georgia Department of Transportation would only allow access at that particular point.

White said she asked for confirmation from the DOT, and "the only e-mail I received said that this was a safe location."

"The question is, Are there other safe locations? And they said, 'We haven't evaluated other locations because this is where we were asked,'" White said. She said Wayne Kennedy, the county's director of development and engineering, "said he truly could not comment on this until a traffic study was done" in order to determine the exact length and width of turning lanes.

After Brooks made a motion to deny, Drewyer said he would like to comment on the request. "I would think you would be very concerned about the issues on 154," he said. Any entrance closer to the intersection would interfere with site distance and the new turn lanes for the intersection improvement, Drewyer said.

Candlewood residents also spoke, opposing the variance. "He did get his zoning. It may not be quite what he wanted, but now can the people of Candlewood get a little bit of justice?" asked Alan Pope. "Can we at least do away with this entrance? It's going to go right behind a lot of homes."

The vote to deny was 4-0.

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