Plans

for 200 homes, plus offices, shops, parks and a

hotel on 110 acres near Fayetteville's Courthouse

Square are moving along well, said Bob Rolader,

who hopes to develop the property.

Rolader

and experts from Integrated Science and

Engineering, a firm that will help engineer the

project, traveled to Memphis, Tenn. recently to

visit Harbortown. "It's one of the premier

examples around of a neo-traditional

community," Rolader told the Fayetteville

Planning Commission during its work session last

week.

Harbortown,

he said, "had that sort of `Leave it to

Beaver' look that we're looking for," he

said.

Consultants

hired by the city to master-plan the site

recommended the high-density, Charleston style

community as a way to keep Fayetteville's

downtown area vital, and designers are now

looking for the best innovations in street scape

and neighborhood planning to create an upscale,

in-town atmosphere.

Rolader

said he is currently talking with a leading

national builder who is interested in the

project, while designers begin to fine-tune the

overall concept.

The

property, at Ga. Highway 54 and Tiger Trail, has

been in the family of its most recent owner King

McElwaney for more than 100 years. It became the

subject of intense scrutiny last year when city

staff and the Planning Commission conducted a

thorough review of the city's comprehensive plan.

Planning

staff discovered that there are only two large

single-owner tracts left in Fayetteville, the

McElwaney property and a 175-acre parcel south of

town on Jimmy Mayfield Boulevard.

After

a series of public hearings and work sessions,

City Council decided to hire consultants to

develop master plans for the two parcels.

"I'm

glad to see the McElwaney property going that

way," said Planning Commission Chairman Bill

Talley, "because that is going to be a real

exciting project."

Rolader

said build-out of the project will probably take

five to ten years.

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