Tyrone's search for a town hall site could be completed within six months.

That's the opinion from Town Councilman Paul Letourneau following a joint Monday night meeting between the town's council and Planning Commission.

The meeting was called to try and clear up the process of identifying a potential new site and also to determine what elements will compose the new municipal complex.

Planning Commission Chairman Tom Williams asked for the meeting after developer John Callaway had approached the commission about a potential 60-acre commercial development that would front on Ga. Highway 74.

As part of his proposal, Callaway offered to donate part of the property to the town to be used for a municipal complex.

During Monday night's meeting, Atlanta architect and town planner Paul Muldawer outlined a possible option.

Muldawer is an authority on “traditional neighborhood developments” and asked the town officials to think about incorporating that concept in its planning for a town center.

Traditional neighborhoods refer to developments and planning that were in vogue during the 1920s. Developments consist of small lots with zero lot lines and often have mixed use zoning.

Muldawer said many cities have buildings that have retail or commercial development on the bottom floor with residences above the businesses.

He pointed to such cities and developments, like Seaside, Fla. and Celebration, Fla., that have embraced this concept and have found the rewards to be great.

“These developments have seen property values increase 25 percent a year,” he said.

With the Atlanta region trying to find alternative transportation plans, Muldawer said traditional neighborhoods emphasize a pedestrian scale and focus on having services within a five minute-walk of residences.

While some of the town's leaders agreed with parts of the architect's presentation, many had problems with the concept of smaller lot sizes or mixing residential with commercial in the same area.

“The people of Tyrone like what we have now,” said Councilman Paul Letourneau.

He added that he would like to see some sort of commercial development around the proposed town center, but would have difficulty integrating residences into the concept.

Councilman Ronnie Cannon agreed with Letourneau and also fired a shot at developers.

“I'm not going to let a developer tell me where city hall is going to be,” he said.

The consensus of the leaders is that a town center development should be in the same vicinity as the current town hall.

Planning Commission member Dan Flaherty also suggested that council members and commission members suggest a list of elements they would like to see in a town center development to the city's staff, and consider having more joint meetings to work out the details.)

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