Wednesday, May 2, 2001
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Wednesday, May 2, 2001 |
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School annexation goes to Fayetteville
By
JOHN MUNFORD
Plans to have Fayette County's next elementary school situated within the city of Fayetteville have passed Planning and Zoning Commission scrutiny and are now before the City Council. The Planning and Zoning Commission voted last week to recommend approval of an annexation and rezoning request from the Fayette County Board of Education for almost 100 acres on Lester Road south of Ga. Highway 54. This tract, on the western edge of Fayetteville, is the site for a future elementary school and maybe a middle school a few years down the road. Talk of a high school eventually being built on a portion of the site was quieted a bit, however, when a school system representative said such a move would be a decade away, if ever. The school system bought the entire tract, on both sides of Lester Road, because the previous owner would not sell it piecemeal, according to school facilities director Mike Satterfield. The northern portion, slightly less than half the total 94.2 acres, would house the elementary and middle schools. The southern portion of the site is large enough for a high school, Satterfield said, but the county's fifth high school is already in the works farther south. It is scheduled to open in 2004 or 2005. Anything else would be several years after that, he said. "It was a good opportunity," Satterfield said of the overall land purchase. "It fit with our current attendance lines." Construction of the elementary school is the only definite move being made right now. As for the high school property, it could be developed in some other fashion in the future. School system officials have requested annexation because of possible access to the city's sewer system. City Engineer Don Easterbrook, when reviewing possible benefits to the city from annexation, said that having the school on the sewer line would be environmentally beneficial, and the buildings themselves would come somewhat under city architectural control if the property were annexed. Commission Chairman Myron Coxe stated that while there is no specific benefit to the city from this move, and one is usually required for annexation to be considered, he felt it would be a rare opportunity to do something of benefit to the entire county. After the commission recommended approval, the City Council discussed the matter at last week's workshop meeting. A first reading of proposed ordinances regarding the annexation and rezoning requests will be heard at tomorrow night's regular council meeting, at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall. Traffic was on the minds of council members at the workshop, specifically in relation to Hwy. 54, which can be extremely congested in that area at certain hours of the day. Satterfield told the council that the attendance zone for this school would not extend north of the highway, so very little school traffic would actually be on Hwy. 54 at all.
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