Wednesday, December 11, 2002
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Wednesday, December 11, 2002 |
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Southside task force plan nears completion
By MONROE
ROARK
As expected, the Fayetteville City Council tabled all of the items on last Thursday night's agenda relating to the proposed southside master plan, giving the task force an opportunity for one final meeting to finalize a plan to present to the council. The task force meets today at 5 p.m. at the Depot. The council would ordinarily conduct a work session tomorrow night preceding the Dec. 19 regular meeting, but the work session has been cancelled because the task force's report cannot be completed in time and there are not enough other items on the agenda to warrant the work session. The report from the task force was tabled until the Dec. 19 meeting, and the other 15 agenda items relating to it a series of annexations, rezonings and development agreements was tabled until the Jan. 16 council meeting. The council will not meet Jan. 2 because of its close proximity to the New Year's holiday. Urban Collage, the consulting firm retained to work with the task force, plans to submit "a more polished concept plan" at this final task force meeting, "based on issues that we've discussed," City Manager Joe Morton said. The concept plan has become more tangible with each meeting, and now such details as building footprints, greenspace and buffer locations, landscaping, and density calculations are coming into focus, Morton added. Council discussions of the southside master plan came to a halt late this summer when a large number of residents on the southern edge of Fayetteville expressed opposition to the proposed multiuse development of several hundred acres along Ga. Highway 92 east of Ga. Highway 85 and west of Jeff Davis Drive. In addition to various retail, office and residential components, the long-term plan called for designated open space and the eventual extension of the Hwy. 92 connector from Jimmie Mayfield Boulevard to Jeff Davis Drive, a move the developers said would greatly reduce traffic through the Fayetteville square by allowing Jeff Davis area residents better access to Fayetteville Towne Center and other retail destinations. An important portion of the overall site is a tract of about 53 acres just off the northeast corner of hwys. 85 and 92, behind GTO's and Walgreen's. That land is in unincorporated Fayette County, although it is nearly an island surrounded by city property. Developers have proposed putting a shopping center, anchored by a Publix supermarket, and other office and residential uses on that site. That proposal got many local residents, specifically in the Kingswood and Chanticleer subdivisions just outside the city limits on Hwy. 92, on full alert. Charging that the retail components of the master plan would lead to major traffic problems and increased crime, among other problems, many of these residents let their opposition to the plan be known at several City Council meetings. The council voted in October to table the annexation and rezoning request until last week. Another tract of concern to local residents is adjacent to Kingswood, on the south side of the Hwy. 92 connector. That land is currently zoned for townhomes, but proponents of the southside master plan petitioned the city for rezoning to commercial. A tract on the east side of Jimmie Mayfield, next to the path of the proposed road extension, is also part of a commercial rezoning request. Opponents feared the plan would create a "Pavilion South," similar to the Fayette Pavilion on the city's north side.
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