Sunday, May 20, 2001
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Sunday, May 20, 2001 |
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Village work moving forward City responds to complaints about tree cutting
By MONROE ROARK
Work on The Village in Fayetteville is moving, albeit it a bit more slowly than planned, but fast enough to get a reaction from some local residents. The Village is a mixed-use planned development, approved last year by the City Council, that calls for town homes, detached houses, office and commercial development on approximately 110 acres on the west side of the city. Calls received at The Citizen as well as City Hall have reflected displeasure of some people at what they think is excessive tree removal at the site, off LaFayette Drive and Tiger Trail next to Fayette County High School. But developers are doing exactly what they got approval to do, according to city officials, and reports of clear-cutting are misleading, they say. City planning director Maurice Ungaro took issue with a photo that ran on the front page of last Wednesday's Fayette Daily News, accompanied by the caption "Where have all the trees gone?" The majority of the land in that photo never had trees on it, he said. "The image that is shown in the Fayette Daily News actually depicts a former farm field and pasture area that had no trees in it," said Ungaro. "The only ones that were there were along LaFayette, and that screened the view of the interior of the property. We have aerial photos from the 1960s that show the area had no trees." Developers are currently working on the two major roads that will snake through the property, and the entrances from Ga. Highway 54 onto the development. Work on The Village got off to a bit of a late start, Ungaro said, because the developers had to iron out some issues regarding one of those Hwy. 54 access points with the state's Department of Transportation and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. "They're a little behind schedule," said Ungaro. "They've had delays, but we [the city] haven't delayed them." After the road work, the next task will be drainage and utilities, although the results of that work will not be easily seen by passing motorists. When the time comes for buildings to be erected on the site, most of the residential construction will come first, after the infrastructure is completed. No timetable has been set by the developers for completion of any of these projects, Ungaro said. The primary developer, Fayetteville Village LLC, has laid out a master plan with a number of parks, amenity areas and quiet one-way streets that wrap around both residential and commercial property, giving residents the opportunity to "live, work and play" at the same location. The Village centers on 202 proposed residential units a combination of estate lots, town houses and village lots on the site, which is bordered on the south by Ga. Highway 54, on the east by Tiger Trail, and on the north by Fayette County High School. In addition to the retail and office space available within the project itself, the proximity of schools is expected to be a major selling point for potential residents. At least three town-square-style parks, similar to what is seen in the historic section of Savannah, are planned in an attempt to bring together the various land uses in a traditional neighborhood setting.
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