Wednesday, April 30, 2003
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Wednesday, April 30, 2003 |
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Different shade of green has developers eyeing central Fayette's open farm lands By J. FRANK LYNCH
Last summer, quietly and without much fanfare, the Fayette County Board of Education emerged from an executive session and voted to purchase 60 acres of land at the corner of Ga. Highway 54 and Tyrone Road as a site for the county's sixth high school. It was not a small gesture. While officials with the county and city governments remain mum on any plans in motion to develop the thousands of acres of vacant land in the central portion of the county, the school district saw something much different: Proposals on the table that will bring hundreds of homes and thousands more students into the county over the next 10 years. Mike Satterfield, facilities services director for the school district, admits the new high school (so new in concept it doesn't even have a working name yet) will probably not be built for another six years or so, which puts it on the same schedule as other recent high school additions (Starr's Mill in 1997, Whitewater High next year). But the plan is in place in case the school district needs to act quicker, and when it does, the new high school will serve a vital role as a "pressure valve" on student enrollment, much like the dike in a dam. Because it will be centrally located to nearly all of Fayette's existing high school clusters, Satterfield said officials could more readily control fluctuations in enrollments at each of the schools by tugging and pulling from the new one. And the need will arise, he said. State officials estimate Fayette County will double in population over the next 25 years, and the school district will enroll 45,000 students by 2020, more than double current enrollment. The new high school, sited on a high plateau overlooking Hwy. 54, will not stand alone. While it is the only firm project confirmed for that area of the county, a half dozen other developments are in the works, with greater impact. 8 The Lester Farm, owned by the family of longtime former Fayetteville City Manager John Addison Lester, is being marketed by Group VI of Peachtree City. More than 100 acres remain after the family sold 60 to the school board, and plans being shown around the county indicate Group VI wants to develop it as an upscale office park or high-tech industrial park. Group VI, a recent general contractor for the Peachtree City Tennis Center construction, is headed by Jim Pace, current chairman of the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce. 8 Fayette Community Hospital has proposed an expansion that includes rezoning and annexation of several acres of land just to the west of the hospital on Hwy. 54. Group VI is also an agent in that project. 8 Between the Fayette Community Hospital site and the Lester Farm property, the Rivers family has nearly 2,000 feet of frontage on Hwy. 54. From there, the land holdings stretch north and out, crossing Sandy Creek Road to include more than 750 acres. The family hopes to sell the land to a developer around the first of the year (see related story). 8 Across Hwy. 54 from the hospital, a developer has purchased 45 acres of land with plans to build a retirement community. 8 Some see the Sandy Creek Road corridor as potentially the county's last hope of having a quick, direct link to the interstate. By widening the road to four lanes, rerouting it where necessary and possibly making it limited access, the road could provide a 10-minute commute from the central part of the county to a termination point at I-85, near where Ga. Highway 74 presently intersects the interstate. Clearly, the potential for massive change is real, and the response from governments and developers is critical. But Chris Clark, executive director of the Fayette County Development Authority, isn't worried. "I've got lots of confidence in our leadership that they will do the right thing in directing the future of that land," he said. "And the families involved, I know they have expressed an interest in trying to maintain some kind of legacy." Sewer access is the key, Clark agreed. And with the hospital being in the city, that provides a link to the vast area. And efforts to annex much of it into Fayetteville are sure to face scrutiny. All this delights William Hester, who has operated a single store at the corner of Hwy. 54 and Tyrone Road for a generation. He has raised a family and sent his kids to college on the profits from the little gas station, Hester's Citgo, which also includes a popular to-go chicken wing business. Over the years, income steadily grew as traffic grew, he said. Even widening the road 10 years ago, which forced him to relocate his gas pumps around to the side of the building, didn't do him in. And now, the prospects of a high school going in right next door, not to mention all the other proposals being bantered about, give him nothing but good feelings about the future. After all, to a convenience store owner, more traffic equals more sodas, chips and cigarette sales. "We're not going anywhere," he said, like someone in the audience waiting for the show to start. "Bring it on, bring it on."
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