Friday, March 12, 2004
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Friday, March 12, 2004 |
| Sharpsburg getting ready for changes By JOHN THOMPSON Will East Coweta’s smallest town remain quaint, or will growth strangle it like the kudzu that leads into town? That’s the question the town leaders and residents are mulling about over the next few months. All around this tiny hamlet, residents see growth. The Thomas Crossroads area has exploded with new development, while just to the east, Senoia is booming, and could boom even more once its sewer line is completed. With all the growth occurring at its doorstep, the town’s officials recently hired a consulting firm to help deal with the impending changes. Paul Muldawer, of Muldawer and Associates, recently held a town hall meeting to get residents input on which direction the town should move. He was very impressed with the feedback. “The town is really trying to plan before the growth arrives,” he said. Muldawer has worked with governments in Acworth, East Point, College Park and Fayetteville in urban planning and said Sharpsburg’s residents have very strong opinions about their town. “They really want to keep the small-town look and feel. They really would like a Mayberry-type atmosphere,” he added. He said the residents wanted to have homes with porches and architecture that reflected the area. Residents also suggested small, neighborhood storefronts that would have all the customer parking behind the building to encourage more pedestrian interaction. Muldawer added the impetus for his help seems to be the impending construction of the Coweta-Fayette Connector, which could see traffic in the small burg increase from 900 cars a day to 9,000. Over the next few months, Muldawer would be holding small planning sessions in the town to get more feedback from residents before he makes a final report to the town’s leaders. “They know that developers will start exerting pressure. They just want to make sure the growth is planned to best help the community.”
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