It has been a couple of years since the last residential development for ages 55 and up was presented in Fayetteville. Today the Beverly J. Searles Foundation is back in town, proposing 239 independent living, assisted living and memory care units along Ga. Highway 54 in The Villages development just west of downtown. The proposal will not be formally presented until later in July.

The Lafayette Place senior living proposal was presented only as a staff report at the June 24 meeting of the Fayetteville Planning and Zoning Commission and is expected to be formally presented later in July.

The proposal calls for developing the 13.7-acre site to include 125 independent living units, 24 independent “quad” villas along with 60 assisted living units and 30 memory care units in a large building. The proposal will be presented as a rezoning request.

Searles representative David Russell said the two- and three-story flats would house the independent living units, adding that the memory care portion of the development would be a secured facility.

Landscape architect Dennis Drewyer said the development could accommodate a small amount of retail on the east side of the property near the Hampton Inn.

The same property was approved by the City Council in 2008 for a 175,000 square-foot retail/office/residential development with an anchor store no larger than 35,000 square feet.

Chairman Sarah Murphy said staff will investigate the proposal and report back at the July meeting.

The Lafayette Senior Village development on the west side of Lafayette Avenue and Hwy. 54, a Searles Foundation proposal, was approved by the council in mid-2011. The senior residential living project was to be a federal tax credit-funded arrangement routed through the Georgia Dept. of Community Affairs (DCA) but was put on hold in 2012 after the project was not selected in the 2011 round of funding.