By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitzennews.com

Fayetteville City Council members want more discussion on the ambitious proposed Village project near the heart of the city before voting to approve or deny the plan.

City staff and the Planning Commission pored over plans for the mixed-use development for almost a year before the commission recently voted to recommend denial, and council members say they're not ready to make the final decision quite yet. The group Monday voted to put the project back through its first- and second-reading process.

“As we walk through this we really have to take our time and make sure everyone is comfortable,” said Mayor Kenneth Steele as the council discussed the proposal Monday.

Developer Argonne Properties Inc. is seeking a new zoning category, PCD (planned community development — enacted by council during Monday's meeting — for a 110-acre tract at Ga. Highway 54 and Tiger Trail, a block from the Courthouse Square.

Planned are 203 homes, a neighborhood shopping square, class A offices, a hotel/conference center, a day care center and several neighborhood parks. Drawn by a city-paid consultant, the plan is designed to focus future development efforts on the city's downtown area.

Resident Mike DeLowe, who addressed council during a public hearing on the plan Monday, said that's a mistake. “We're talking about increased density and increased traffic in one of the critical areas of the city,” he said.

He argued that new development downtown will bring about empty buildings in Fayetteville's outlying commercial developments the same way that those outlying developments have emptied stores along Ga. Highway 85 near downtown. “If you revitalize downtown you might end up with shopping center blight someplace else,” he said.

If that's the case, said Councilman Al Hovey-King, he would rather see downtown revitalized and outlying areas blighted than the other way around. “We have chosen to focus on downtown... it does reflect the community more so than the outlying areas,” said Hovey-King.

Councilman Walt White echoed that sentiment. “I believe commercial is going to start coming back toward town. I'm definitely not for going any farther out,” he said.

Argonne president Bob Rolader said the company is in the process of finishing up a detailed development agreement for The Village and hopes to present a first draft of that document at the council's next work session, April 12.

Council could approve the PCD zoning for the project without having the development agreement in place, but Mayor Steele said he hopes the group will hold out for having all the documents in place before moving forward. “I'd like to see everything before we decide,” he said.