The Fayetteville City Council Thursday night approved a monument sign variance for the new Teton Village retail center on South Glynn Street at Grady Avenue. The board in the brief meeting also adopted a resolution supporting a countywide initiative to have Google install a one gigabyte fiber network in Fayette County.
Teton Village retail center requested a variance from the general regulations of the sign ordinance that states a planned center is entitled to a ground sign that shall not be located within 10 feet of a street right-of-way, said city engineer Don Easterbrook.
Easterbrook said the applicant requested the variance in order to construct a monument ground sign that would encroach 8 feet into the required setback, approximately two feet from the abutting right-of-way and sidewalk along South Glynn Street.
The council agreed with the staff recommendation for approval of the request because the applicant developed this project in compliance with city requirements and is now limited as to the space and location along South Glynn Street for the placement.
During the discussion Councilman Al Hovey-King questioned whether the planned location of the monument sign north of the driveway along Glynn Street should be located on the south side of the driveway to avoid any line-of-sight issues for southbound drivers.
The council agreed that a mock-up of the sign would be completed and approved by the city to make sure that no visibility issues exist prior to having the sign installed.
Also at the meeting, the council unanimously approved a resolution supporting the effort to have Google build a one gigabyte fiber network in Fayette County. The fiber network could provide Internet access 100 times faster than the current Internet services within the Fayette County area.
Systems administrator Kelvin Joiner said the Google project could boost the city’s economic development by providing high speed internet to its citizens. While it’s too early to determine what the longer term plans for Google’s FTTH (Fiber-to-the-Home) move will be, any avenue that increases choice for consumers is a good thing, with significant convergence in voice, video and data services and increased demand for bandwidth Fayette county businesses and its citizens, Johnson said.
The City of Fayetteville in a partnership with other Fayette governmental agencies is collecting the information from city staff, citizen surveys and from the Fayette Chamber of Commerce and the development authority.
Local governments are asking citizens to help nominate the county by visiting the Google Fiber for Communities website at http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi and clicking on the “Get Involved” button. A Google ID, which can be obtained for free, is needed to complete the nomination form; the deadline for nominations is March 26.
The Google bid committee is also asking residents and businesses to complete an Internet usage survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/googleinfayettecounty.
