Fayetteville

Planning Commission members say they need more

time to study plans for The Village, a proposed

110-acre mixed-use development in the heart of

the city.

Commissioners

will discuss the plan, and a proposed new zoning

category connected to it, in their work session

this coming Tuesday at 7 p.m. They may then

decide whether to recommend the rezoning to City

Council during their regular meeting Nov. 23 at

7:30 p.m. Both meetings are at City Hall.

"This

is quite a radical change from what we have had.

There are several things I would like to

review," said commission member Allan

Feldman last week before offering a motion to

table the matter.

Developer

Bob Rolader is asking the Planning Commission to

recommend and the City Council to approve a new

zoning category, PCD (Planned Community District)

to replace the current PUD (Planned Unit

Development), and then attach the new category to

the 110-acre former McElwaney property on Ga.

Highway 54 and Tiger Trail.

City

Council already has approved the basic concept of

a plan for just over 200 homes in addition to a

hotel/conference center, a small neighborhood

shopping square, plus offices and green space.

consultant hired by the city developed the plan

with input from elected and appointed city

officials in addition to the developer and other

interested parties.

Council

members balked at the original plan, which called

for more than 300 homes, but approved it when

Rolader and consultants whittled it down to 200

homes.

City

leaders are hoping that development of the

"neotraditional" neighborhood will

bolster downtown revitalization efforts and

create an upscale, pedestrian atmosphere in the

city's center.

But

Planning Commissioners have expressed some

reservations about creating a new zoning category

targeted for a specific development.

"This

is an ordinance written for a project,"

Feldman said during a work session early this

month.

City

planner Maurice Ungara said the new category is

not tailored just to this development, but will

be an overall improvement over PUD.

In

its original form, developed in the `60s and

`70s, PUD zoning was designed to provide for

master planning of communities, city planner

Maurice Ungara told the Planning Commission

during a work session last week. But over the

years, that original purpose has been perverted,

he said.

"It's

basically been used to replace the variance

process," he said, "for projects as

small as five acres."

The

proposed PCD category, he said, will allow

developers flexibility so they can be more

creative in designing large developments, with

the trade-off that the city will have more

control. "The zoning is attached to the

property and includes anything associated with

that development," he said.

"It

would require everything to be documented.

Natural resources, historic resources, etc., all

have to be taken into account," he added

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