If voters renew a 1 percent sales tax in November, one of the items slated for funding is a college campus that could host two or more institutions here in Fayette County.

County officials are preparing to move onto the next phase, a determination of the criteria for evaluating which colleges might be the best fit for Fayette County.

At last week’s meeting of the Fayette County Commission, Chairman Jack Smith suggested the task be left up to the Fayette County Development Authority, an agency that is charged with attracting business to Fayette.

Smith told his fellow commissioners that he had spoken about the matter with some of Fayette’s mayors. The authority, Smith suggested, would only be given the power to develop the criteria, not to select any institution.

The authority represents “a good cross section of people to take the pulse of the county and develop that criteria,” Smith said.

The special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) on November’s ballot includes $5 million set aside for construction of a college campus in Fayette County. Smith recently told The Citizen that he imagines the county would select the institutions first before designing and building the campus, so those institutions would be able to have a hand in the design process.

Commissioners agreed by consent to have Smith author a letter to the Development Authority asking it to develop the criteria. Smith said the authority would also be assisted by at least one ex-officio member from the Fayette County School System.

Clayton State University is already offering college classes including those toward an MBA degree at its satellite location in a Peachtree City office building. Meanwhile, in nearby Fairburn, city officials have already lured several colleges to a campus built with city funds.

Smith has said he thinks Fayette can duplicate Fairburn’s success by building the campus and then leasing it to the institutions.

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