By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com

The Village is coming to Fayetteville.

After 16 months of negotiation, City Council Monday approved a change in zoning to allow the ambitious, upscale development on 110 acres just west of downtown.

The property, at Tiger Trail and Ga. Highway 54 next to Fayette County High School, was purchased recently from the McElwaney family, whicah had owned it for more than 100 years.

“I'm thankful we got it done,” said a relieved developer Bob Rolader following council's unanimous vote.

Council's approval of PCD (planned community development) zoning for the property includes approval of a detailed development agreement that binds the developers and the city.

“I think it's a good document,” said Rolader. “It locks down the property so that it will be developed exactly as the city envisions it.”

What the city envisions is a pedestrian-friendly community of 203 homes on tree-lined streets, wrapped around a series of neighborhood parks, plus a hotel/conference center, a class A office complex, a day care center and a neighborhood shopping area with loft apartments, in some cases, for owners and managers.

More specifically, the plan calls for 117,900 square feet of offices, 25,100 square feet of restaurants, 135,400 square feet of neighborhood shopping and four styles of homes ranging from townhouses to large estate homes.

The project was planned last spring by consultants hired and paid by the city. Council had decided to hire its own consultants to master plan the two remaining large tracts of undeveloped land in the city as a way of ensuring quality development.

While officials admit that the project is high density, they say high density in the city's inner core will help ensure the area's future vitality.

“It is very important to Fayetteville's future that we have people living downtown,” said Councilman Bill Talley following Monday's action.

Talley was a member of the “vision” committee that worked with consultants on the plan last year, and was chairman of the city Planning Commission while that group pored over the plan for the last several months. Having been elected to council in December, he followed the project through its final approval.

“The vision committee dealt with general concepts,” said Talley, “and this is as close to that in reality as it can be. By and large it is an adequate implementation of a concept.”

Don't expect to see bulldozers on the property very soon. As part of the PCD zoning category, Rolader's next step is to take each portion of the project to the Planning Commission for site plan approval before beginning construction. Engineering, hydrology and tree studies must be conducted as part of that process, so it may be two or three months before the first phase is presented to the commission.