Everybody loves a parade, but somebody’s got to pay for them. Fayetteville City Council May 18 heard a proposal to formalize the parade permitting process and establish a parade fee.

Council members also heard a first reading on two rezoning requests for 120,000 square feet of office and retail space on Ga. Highway 54. Decisions on the items might come at the June 1 meeting.

The council heard the first reading of requests to amend the parade ordinance to include six routes and establish a parade fee structure. Police Chief Steve Heaton, in an April 27 memo, requested the changes, “due to the number of requests for parades and other events which require an increase of services from the police department as well as other departments within the city.”

The city currently has two parade routes and has informally used three other walk/run routes but has no fee structure. The proposed amendment would formalize the procedure and make the parade application process easier for the public and city, Heaton said. Fees are requested to help defray the cost of providing officers and other city staff during the events, Heaton said.

The proposed ordinance change would include three “regular routes” and three “silent routes.” Regular routes would be those permitting motor vehicles, noise-making devices, sound amplification devices or musical instruments. Silent routes would include no motor vehicles or noise- or sound-making devices. Fees would range from $50-250.

Also included in the proposal were right-of-way processions, with an accompanying $25 processing fee, that would be permitted only on sidewalks and right-of-ways and with no motor vehicles, noise or sound.

Regular parade routes include a “standard route” with a $100 fee and services by five officers, an “extended route” with a $250 fee and 10 officers and a “recreation center route” with a $200 fee and seven officers.

Silent parade routes include a 5K road race route with a $100 fee and four officers, a Villages 5K fun run/walk route with a $50 fee and three officers and a Spring Hill Elementary run/walk 5K route with a $50 fee and three officers.

The standard route would begin at Fayette County High School and travel onto Tiger Trail and Lafayette Avenue. The procession would turn right onto Ga. Highway 85 and right onto Hwy. 54. The parade would turn right again at Tiger Trail and back to the high school.

The extended route would follow the same route but would continue on Hwy. 54 to the second entrance to The Villages at LaFayette Park and return to the high school via Campaigne Trail.

The recreation route would also begin at the high school, moving along to Hwy. 85. From there the parade would continue south until reaching Beauregard Boulevard. The procession would continue until reaching Fayette County Recreation Center Baseball Complex.

The 5K road race route would begin at Fayetteville First Baptist Church and then on to Johnson Avenue, left at Lee Street and continue to Bradley Drive and on to Jimmie Mayfield. Runners would enter at Woodgate subdivision and exit back onto Bradley Drive and return to the church.

The Villages 5K fun run/walk route would be held in The Villages at LaFayette, making one and one-half laps through the development.

The final proposed route, the Spring Hill Elementary run/walk 5K route would begin at the school and travel east toward Fayette Middle School. Runners would travel left onto Grady Avenue and continue to Bradford Square Drive and on to First Manassas Mile until the dead end. Runners would turn around and complete the race at the school.

Also May 18, the council heard the first reading of two rezoning requests for nearly 120,000 square feet of office and retail space along Hwy. 54. One request seeks to have seven acres on Brandywine Boulevard Extension rezoned from C-3 to OI (Office Institutional) for the development of two 31,000 square-foot office buildings. The other request, involving property on the southeast corner of Hwy. 54 and Grady Avenue, seeks to have that five-acre site rezoned from R-30 to C-1 (Downtown Commercial) for six mixed use office and retail buildings totaling nearly 60,000 square feet.

The council will have the final reading and a potential vote on the parade ordinance amendment and rezoning requests at the June 1 meeting.

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