The final and most significant phase of Tyrone’s 2027 Comprehensive Plan, the Community Agenda, was presented April 26 to the town’s Planning Commission. Commissioners voted 4-0 to recommend the plan to the town council.

The Draft Community Agenda defines the community’s vision for the future, outlines key issues facing the town during the next 20 years and crafts an implementation program for achieving the vision and addressing each issue and opportunity. Also included in the Community Agenda is the Future Land Use Map, Future Development Map and an updated five-year Short Term Work Program.

Completed by Norcross-based Jordan, Jones & Goulding (JJG), the Community Agenda portion of the plan followed the Community Assessment and Community Participation Program portions that were completed in August 2006 and submitted to Atlanta Regional Commission and Georgia Dept. of Community Affairs.

At the April 26 meeting, JJG consultant Jonathan Lewis outlined the comprehensive plan process and gave an overview of the Draft Community Agenda.

“Basically, we got a lot of feedback from the community and from surveys,” Lewis told commissioners.

A portion of the discussion centered on the long-term plan by Fayette County that calls for Palmetto Tyrone Road to be widened to four lanes. The commission largely disagreed with the notion, suggesting that other options be explored to keep the road limited to a two-lane thoroughfare. Another issue revolved around future sewer capacity, with the commission recommending that more specific language be included in the plan to address potential areas that would need increased capacity in coming years. The downtown area previously envisioned in the Town Center, a plan that recently came under fire by the town council, was referenced as an example in the discussion on sewer capacity. The revitalization of Main Street is dependent on having sewer, Lewis said, adding that revitalization is much more about design than density.

“Sewer is one of our biggest stumbling blocks,” Commission Kevin Gooding said, continuing the discussion. “We are spinning our wheels until we have a plan for sewer.”

Town Manager Barry Amos also noted the connection between sewer capacity and any future efforts designed to revitalize the downtown area.

“Without sewer capacity the master plan sent out in 2005, a plan that 66 percent of residents liked, can’t happen. We can build a sewer plant but it’s not economically feasible. So what we need is a plan,” Amos said.

A vision for the town was compiled from a visioning workshop, visioning surveys and from a citizens advisory committee, Lewis said. The overall vision for the town is represented in four parts, including the downtown area, Ga. Highway 74, the residential areas and the town as a whole. Residents expressed a multi-faceted vision for downtown in terms of maintaining a small town feel, a place to bring parents and out-of-town friends, providing a walking district with generous sidewalks, small-scale shops and restaurants, upscale and speciality shops and gathering places. Other ideas included a “park-once” environment with shared parking lots, keeping all parking in the rear of buildings, providing locations such as library, police and fire stations for important civic functions, maintaining a historic feel with clean streets, a mix of housing and housing for retiring baby boomers, cultural facilities including a new library, a downtown area like those found in Senoia, Serenbe and Charleston, S.C. and sufficient parks, especially an improved Shamrock Park.

The vision for the Hwy. 74 Corridor included keeping it a limited access highway, keeping commercial to the existing node at Senoia Road and Hwy. 74, minimizing the intensity of development with a wide natural buffer, berms and/or landscaping. All development behind the natural buffer should be well-connected with interparcel connections, access lanes and shared drives. A final vision for the corridor included preserving some of the scenic views along Hwy. 74.
The vision for the town’s residential areas included maintaining open, leafy, low-density residential areas, providing a network of fitness and biking trails and a mix of preserved open areas and residences, keeping a large number of trees and providing the opportunity to walk to parks, restaurants and shops.

The vision for the town as a whole included maintaining Tyrone’s small town character in the Town Center, commercial and office areas, maintaining the rural character in residential areas and around the edges of the town, preserving greenspace, having a network of multi-use paths, keeping great schools and low taxes, managing traffic with few road widenings and no new bypass and providing an abundance of parks and recreation space, especially passive recreation space.

The thorough and thought-laden issues and opportunities portion of the Draft Community Agenda contained seven targeted components comprising all areas of life in Tyrone. As with the comprehensive plans of any community in Georgia, issues and opportunities often function as situations and circumstances to be aware of and examine. Those areas may or may not have an immediate, detailed solution.

Population issues over the next 20 years centered on the retirement of baby boomers and the need for additional local healthcare, housing options and senior services to accommodate the swelling demographic group. The agenda calls for acting now to find ways to sustain Tyrone’s growth.

The agenda identified three economic development issues. Those included the town’s current lack of excess sewer capacity, an issue that will severely limit development unless a solution is found. Also identified was the increased traffic congestion along Hwy. 74 and the likelihood that it will worsen. A third issue was the current lack of adequate healthcare services for an aging population and the need to encourage the development of additional services. The key economic development opportunity was one that would promote downtown revitalization. The approach toward that end is not set, as evidenced by the recent change of emphasis relating to the downtown master plan that was overturned.

In the housing issues component, the agenda identified the need to encourage housing for people of all ages, while offering development in a responsible and sustainable manner. Mirroring the housing issues statement, opportunities suggested that the town ensure future growth in a responsible and sustainable manner.

Natural and cultural resource issues were identified as including poor air quality, the lack of a specific strategy for addressing air quality other than cooperating with regional efforts, the need to monitor water supply watersheds and the need to maintain a tree canopy, especially in residential areas. Four natural and cultural resource opportunities were presented. These included development of a plan to preserve land within developments and through conservation programs, protection of water quality, adoption of a Safe Dam Ordinance and participation in state and federal historic preservation programs.

Three issues were identified in the Community Facilities and Services component. Participants called for meeting the service demands of explosive population growth, updating the town’s solid waste management plan and developing a master plan for active and passive park space. Opportunities within the component were identified as exploring ways to acquire additional capacity and consideration of creating a stormwater utility to pay for stormwater management and infrastructure.

One item was listed in the Intergovernmental Coordination opportunities component. That item noted the town’s need to work with neighboring jurisdictions to explore ways to purchase additional sewer capacity.

The largest number of items identified within any component was in the transportation section. Transportation issues included the statement that Tyrone’s main street is not a major thoroughfare due to the reconfiguration of Ga. Highway 74, effectively giving the town two main streets and relieving the historic downtown of excessive pass-through traffic. There is not a consistent grid pattern throughout the town and new developments lack connectivity, another item suggested. The agenda noted a poorly connected or incomplete pedestrian network and the need for safer railroad crossing points. Finally, the study suggested that housing, jobs, daily needs and other activities are not within easy walking distance of one another. This section made reference to the need for serious changes in land use spacing patterns and transportation infrastructure identified in the master plan that has recently been overturned by the council.

The transportation opportunities area identified six items. These included the introduction of commuter bus service, exploring the possibility of commuter rail, enhancing the town’s street grid, evaluating and making improvement at unsafe intersections and those experiencing bottlenecks, promoting the development of streetscapes and planted medians and encouraging construction of an interconnected trail system.

Land use issues were not noted in the Community Agenda. Land use opportunities included reserving land for industrial and commercial growth free from residential encroachment, maintaining Hwy. 74 Corridor land use controls, encouraging traditional neighborhood development and protecting natural resources within developments. The section also referenced the now-contested topic of downtown revitalization via the master plan.

The Tyrone 2027 Comprehensive Plan Draft Community Agenda is available for viewing at Tyrone Town Hall or the library.

login to post comments