News | Tyrone

Town hopes for big response from survey

Mon, 09/25/2006 - 8:35am
By: John Thompson

“It’s going to be one of the most important meetings we’ll ever have.”

That’s what Tyrone Town Manager Barry Amos told the town council Thursday night about the town’s visioning session set for Oct.12.

The meeting is the latest step in getting the town’s comprehensive plan established for the next 20 years. Earlier this week, surveys were sent to each household in Tyrone to get residents’ feedback on how the town should grow during the next 20 years. Copies of the survey are also available on the town’s Web site at www.tyrone.org.

The 32-question survey asks residents a variety of questions concerning the future look of the town. One of the issues is the character of Tyrone. Residents are asked whether the town should retain a suburban character, rural character, small-town character or focus more on mixed-use development.

One of the driving forces in the town during the last few years has been an effort to redevelop downtown. The survey asks residents whether the area should be redeveloped as a walking district with small-scale shops and restaurants. Another possibility is designing any future growth to look old and having condominiums above small shops and creating a true mixed-use district.

Residents also get to weigh in on future transportation options. Possible solutions include widening as many roads as possible to working with Fayette County to bring commuter rail or bus service to the area.

One of the biggest areas of concern is future density in Tyrone. Residents have three choices on the survey:

• The town should allow clustering of residential development to permanently protect greenspace and views as long as each development has an average of no more than one unit per buildable acre. This approach allows smaller residential lots, but protects sensitive environmental areas and views from local roads.

•The town should ensure every residential unit has a minimum of a one buildable- acre lot. This approach ensures larger lots, but does not protect sensitive environmental areas as greenspace.

•Tyrone should focus on the character and quality of new residential development, rather than focusing on density. This approach would focus on design and architectural standards and the provision of neighborhood amenity areas within regulations adopted by Mayor and Council.

Amos said residents can drop off the surveys at Town Hall or bring them to the meeting Oct.12 at 7 p.m. After the results and public comment are gathered, another public meeting will be scheduled to release the results.

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Big response in Tyrone
mudcat's picture
Submitted by mudcat on Mon, 10/02/2006 - 7:03pm.

Do you have any idea how stupid it is to promote rejuvination of downtown at the same time you insist upon 1 acre lots? Some of you were holding out for 2 acres.

If you want downtown to thrive - create an overlay district that encourages both residential and commercial development. Commercial does not work without residences - yes, even high density residences. You Tyronese you have not had heart attacks over the "density" word - read on.

Downtown Tyrone is perfect for high density lofts over commercial and retail. If you price yourself at $200k, you will thrive. If you try to go higher to keep out the riff raff, you will die on the vine and the riff raff will come anyway.

meow


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mudcat is too vague
Submitted by OhMy on Tue, 10/03/2006 - 9:36am.

First of all, we are talking about downtown Tyrone not downtown Atlanta. Lofts over commercial or retail space will never attract families wanting to move to Tyrone and will only attract singles (nothing wrong with singles wanting to live in Tyrone). Lofts could also be used as rental space and Tyrone residents do not want that. Space is available along the Highway 74 corridor so why not use that as your commercial area? There are other options for commercial development and Tyrone must be smart about how it is accomplished. I am not against Tyrone having retail space downtown but just throwing out ideas without analyzing the impact is irresponsible.

On another note, you stated that density could help renovate the downtown area. The one and most important item you failed to mention is how density will impact Tyrone. How will higher density impact the schools, housing market, police department, fire department, and traffic? The housing market is over saturated (look at the number of homes for sale and for how long) as it is and increasing the number of homes will not benefit Tyrone or its citizens.
If you can provide these necessities without negatively impacting Tyrone citizens then we can debate the development of downtown Tyrone.

Lastly, people move to Tyrone because of the family lifestyle and rural appeal. We want to keep it that way and not mirror every other town in Georgia which is overrun with development.

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Tyrone Survey
Submitted by OhMy on Mon, 10/02/2006 - 3:00pm.

After reviewing the comprehensive plan survey, it reminded me of a survey that Mr. Smola created in efforts to find out where the citizens wanted the new library. What I mean is that after each question you will get the hint of how it will impact the town. The hints are biased and self promoting and makes me believe that Tyrone management thinks the citizens are uneducated. All three examples posted on this page give the councils opinion and attempts to sway the response in their favor. Below is one of their suggestions.

“The town should ensure every residential unit has a minimum of a one buildable- acre lot. This approach ensures larger lots, but does not protect sensitive environmental areas as greenspace.”

This is somewhat comical because the town already has an ordinance stating that every residential lot has a minimum of one buildable acre. Why ask the question when the ordinance exists? If the response goes to plan, the council can eliminate the existing ordinance and permit ½ acre residential lots without reprimand. It has already begun. Simply look at the new John Wieland Homes subdivision plans for the new development on Highway 74. These will be built on ½ acre lots which are in violation of their ordinance.

The other interesting item is that the council believes that you can not protect sensitive environmental areas as greenspace while maintaining 1 acre lots. You can have both but the council doesn’t want to try hard enough! An example of them trying hard is the construction of Triangle Park. It has taken 6 months to build a gazebo!

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Oh My! I do agree with you!
Submitted by head_ragg on Tue, 10/03/2006 - 6:49pm.

To be sitting in 'lofts' above a building, first, there has to be a reason to WANT to! That's the 1st problem! when there are so many empty, cheaper, prettier, cow pastures around here. Why would anyone in their right mind WANT? to live over a building in downtown Tyrone? Is there some idea that there is going to be a winning loto ticket sold by some would be/could be store there that we all need to be there to get in on the deal? Have you totally lost your mind?
When I was a child, immigrants lived over their stores downtown, when they made burgler alarms, they all moved to the country and let the police do the work.

The real reason maybe this is being hyped is ...if you look at the Fayette county gov web site, go to the area of who owns what land, you will see that ...DEVELOPERS... have bought land around the downtown area. That is also, in my mind, why they won't let Mill Brook have city sewage after they screwed up n let the developer put in a big ole community out house...that don't work! Come on Tyrone, do the right thing and quit hyping this...it makes you look like you have lost your minds!

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