Planners to consider neighborhood preservation request

GAINESVILLE - The Gainesville Planning and Appeals Board on May 10 will consider a plan to preserve a 65-acre section of south Gainesville by designating it a Neighborhood Conservation District.

The plan has been in the works for some time by the Fair Street Area Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU) Steering Committee which was established in May 2007. The group hopes to preserve the single-family character of the neighborhood as much as possible while preventing any new multi-family housing in the area. The area already includes a high concentration of single-family homes but also a mixture of duplexes, vacant tracts, several churches, Desota Park, the Fair Street Neighborhood Center and the Newtown Florist Club office.

Also on May 10, Gainesville planners will consider variance request from Jacky Jones Lincoln-Mercury on Browns Bridge Road which the dealership says is needed in order for it it expand by 1,325 square feet, and it will be asked to approve a special use request which would clear the way for Kaufman Tire to locate an automotive tire and service store on the site of the old Sonic Drive-In Restaurant on Dawsonville Highway.