This year will be a busy time for the Fayetteville City Council and city staff. A lengthy list of goals from the annual council retreat held on Feb. 9 and 10 included items such as developing a revised downtown master plan, a master trail plan, building a new fire station on Veterans Parkway and creating an overlay district in west Fayetteville.
The downtown master plan is a work in progress, one which the council could have plans and a possible adoption come to fruition sometime later in the year. The city will be meeting with the Fayette County Board of Education and those who own property in the area immediately west of downtown.
Fayetteville will have its own city-wide master trail plan that will include everything from sidewalks and crossings to multi-use trails.
Another goal deals with constructing Fire Station 93 on Veterans Parkway in west Fayetteville. The one-acre site is situated along the southernmost portion of the Pinewood Atlanta Studios property near Hood Road.
With a cost of approximately $2 milllion, the new fire station will improve response time to the west Fayetteville area. Nearly half the cost of the station would come from the proposed one-percent sales tax to go before voters in March.
The need for the station was identified during the period several years ago when 1,200 acres was annexed into the city. Today the area is home to Pinewood Atlanta Studios, Pinewood Forrest mixed use development and Georgia Military College.
The city goals list included determining the interest of a technical college that might want to open a campus in the city in late 2017.
The city will begin work on an upgrade to the wastewater treatment facility later in the year, with the upgrade expected to be complete by December 2018.
“We will be upgrading the existing equipment of the plant,” said Public Works Director Chris Hindman. “Because of the age of the equipment and processes, it decreases our efficiency, which could decrease the actual amount that can be processed by the wastewater plant. With the upgrade, we are making sure we can meet the needs of the city of Fayetteville for the full five million gallons a day we are permitted to treat.”
A sampling of other goals on the list included upgrading the city website and all service agreements, creating an overlay district for west Fayetteville, researching intra-city mobility opportunities, ensuring competitive salaries for city employees and determining if the annexation of unincorporated islands is feasible.
