Fayetteville residents can

expect to have a new entertainment venue to call their own next summer.

Plans for the first phase of

the Villages Amphitheater, named for its proposed location in the Villages

at LaFayette Park multi-use development, were unveiled at Thursday night's

City Council meeting.

Dan Davis of Integrated Science

and Engineering, who made the formal presentation, said that construction

on the first phase should begin within three months with completed set

for next June. "We hope the next July Jam is held here," he

said.

The master plan for the project

developed after two months of work by a committee composed of Main Street

and Downtown Development Authority members, city staff and other professionals

whose expertise is directly related to this type of development calls

for about 1,500 fixed seats and another 700 lawn seats, with full-service

concession facilities, multiple bathrooms, an orchestra section and state-of-the-art

stage facilities, Davis said.

The amphitheater is to be located

at the corner of Tiger Trail and LaFayette Avenue, with the stage backing

up to the parking lot of Fayette County High School. An agreement has

been reached with the school system to give the city rights to that parking

area during amphitheater events, with the Board of Education having priority

when scheduling school-related events at the venue.

The first phase will consist

of some 1,500 lawn seats along with most of the other facilities mentioned.

All will be carefully buffered and landscaped to keep with the standards

already set for the Villages development, Davis said.

The project will be financed

with a 20-year bond, and debt service is expected to be met by a combination

of impact fees, user fees and hotel-motel tax revenues. Coincidently,

the City Council approved a 2-percent hike in the hotel-motel tax a few

minutes after the conclusion of the amphitheater presentation.

Mayor Kenneth Steele pointed

out that one of the instructions given the committee at the outset was

to find a way to fund this project without raising taxes for Fayetteville

citizens, and he is pleased that this has apparently been done.

The only question raised by

anyone in the audience concerned possible traffic congestion, and officials

responded that because of the size of the venue and the types of events

that would be scheduled there, traffic would be no worse than a typical

day at Fayette County High School and less congested than at one of the

school's football games.

The amphitheater will be owned

property where it is to be located was recently brought into the Main

Street District by the City Council.

"The mission of the amphitheater

is to create a multi-purpose venue that will serve to represent all aspects

of the cultural, arts and educational community in a professional and

esthetically pleasing environment," according to a press statement

"It is our goal to make

this very much a community-friendly facility," said Main Street manager

Nancy Price. "Part of what we envision here is to have drama productions

and theater, youth orchestra and other cultural events intermixed in a

schedule with a limited number of higher-end events." She added that

the facility will also be available for rental.

"This will not be Chastain

Park, and it will not be Peachtree City," said Davis. "This

has a specific purpose. This is for Fayetteville."

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