The Fayetteville

City Council is set to hear all of the various rezoning requests and development

agreements relating to the southside master plan at tomorrow night's regular

meeting, after tabling everything last month so that all of it could be

considered together.

The agenda

includes the proposed adoption of two separate development agreements

the Simpson (Concordia) agreement, which covers three separate tracts

being targeted for annexation and rezoning, and the Southside agreement,

covering nine parcels already in the city and up for rezoning.

After the city's

Future Land Use Map was reviewed and approved during the past year by

both the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Georgia Department of Community

Affairs, it was revised to reflect the plan proposed by the Southside

Master Plan Task Force. Those changes do not necessitate sending the map

to ARC and DCA again, according to city staff.

All outstanding

issues with the rezoning applications supporting the changes to the Future

Land Use Map have been addressed, and city staff has recommended that

the resolution to amend the Future Land Use Map be approved at this time

conditioned on the approval of the Southside and Simpson development agreements

and associated annexations and rezonings.

The apparent

resolution of all of these issues is the culmination of about two years

of study regarding the southside, including about four months of work

The Southside

master plan now consists of 267.2 acres of land on the south edge of Fayetteville,

encompassing portions of Ga. Highway 85, the Ga. Highway 92 connector,

Jimmie Mayfield Boulevard and Bradley Drive. With the exception of a few

residences and the Ingles supermarket on Hwy. 92, this land is still mostly

undeveloped.

The site currently

includes 97 acres of commercially zoned land and 170.2 acres of residential

zoning, with 21.3 acres of that zoned for townhomes and the rest for single-family

houses. The 53.2-acre Simpson tract is in unincorporated Fayette County,

zoned residential-agricultural.

The task force

was formed early in the fall after a large number of residents in the

area came to the City Council with concerns about proposed development

in the area, specifically from previous Southside master plan proposals.

The council tabled all action relating to the master plan for 60 days,

then for an additional month when last week's final task force meeting

became necessary.

The final master

plan includes a land use plan, a conceptual site plan displaying potential

development patterns and a development agreement between the city and

the relevant property owners and developers. It calls for 124.5 total

commercial acres, 19 total office and institutional acres, 109.2 total

residential acres, and 14.5 acres of open space.

Commercial

property under the plan is consolidated along Hwy. 85 and at the corner

of Hwy. 92 and Jimmie Mayfield (long-term plans include extending the

connector from Jimmie Mayfield to Jeff Davis Drive), and a small office-institutional

node is suggested at the corner of Jimmie Mayfield and Bradley Drive.

The rest is

residential land, bisected by a 300-foot greenway along Perry Creek north

of the Hwy. 92 connector. The plan includes three significant open spaces:

a 4.8-acre parcel on the northwest corner of Bradley and Jimmie Mayfield;

a parcel of 3-plus acres to the west of Jimmie Mayfield at the city limits;

and 2-plus acres on either side of Perry Creek north of the Hwy. 92 connector.

The proposed

pedestrian paths literally wrap around the entire Southside master plan,

running through the large greenway along Perry Creek and along the southern

edge of the site, as well as north across Bradley Drive where a portion

of the proposed townhomes would sit. At the westernmost portion of the

tract, the proposed Publix shopping center, which would have an access

point on Hwy. 85, is also accessible via a series of interconnected streets

from elsewhere in the section north of Hwy. 92, giving accessibility between

various residential and commercial sites without venturing onto the highway.

According to

the report, 97 acres of commercial land currently exist within the city

with the ability to accommodate about 550,000 square feet of commercial

space. Also, the Fayetteville Towne Center shopping center across Hwy.

85 has set a precedent that forced the task force to assume the probable

county rezoning and commercial development of the Simpson tract, which

would bring the entire commercial area to about 120 acres and some 650,000

square feet of total building area, the report stated.

The master

plan does not decrease the total acreage of commercially zoned land, but

it relocates commercial zones to create a node at Jimmie Mayfield and

Hwy. 92, "rather than a sprawling mass of commercial buildings along

Jimmie Mayfield and Bradley Drive," the report said, and the master

plan and accompanying development agreement would allow the city to regulate

the size, type and character of commercial buildings "to create more

of a neighborhood/village-oriented commercial node rather than a regional

marketplace."

Representatives

of Urban Collage briefly reviewed what was accomplished by the 22-member

task force during four long evening meetings the past two months. They

emphasized the four key objectives outlined in the report: minimizing

the impact of commercial zoning on residential areas; limiting high-density

housing to specific areas; developing a meaningful open space; and encouraging

development north and south of the Hwy. 92 connector to be self-contained

with interconnected streets and paths.