Last summer, quietly and without

much fanfare, the Fayette County Board of Education emerged from an executive

session and voted to purchase 60 acres of land at the corner of Ga. Highway

54 and Tyrone Road as a site for the county's sixth high school.

It was not a small gesture.

While officials with the county and city governments remain mum on any

plans in motion to develop the thousands of acres of vacant land in the

central portion of the county, the school district saw something much

different: Proposals on the table that will bring hundreds of homes and

thousands more students into the county over the next 10 years.

Mike Satterfield, facilities

services director for the school district, admits the new high school

(so new in concept it doesn't even have a working name yet) will probably

not be built for another six years or so, which puts it on the same schedule

as other recent high school additions (Starr's Mill in 1997, Whitewater

High next year). But the plan is in place in case the school district

needs to act quicker, and when it does, the new high school will serve

a vital role as a "pressure valve" on student enrollment, much

like the dike in a dam.

Because it will be centrally

located to nearly all of Fayette's existing high school clusters, Satterfield

said officials could more readily control fluctuations in enrollments

at each of the schools by tugging and pulling from the new one.

And the need will arise, he

said. State officials estimate Fayette County will double in population

over the next 25 years, and the school district will enroll 45,000 students

by 2020, more than double current enrollment.

The new high school, sited

on a high plateau overlooking Hwy. 54, will not stand alone. While it

is the only firm project confirmed for that area of the county, a half

dozen other developments are in the works, with greater impact.

8 The Lester Farm, owned by

the family of longtime former Fayetteville City Manager John Addison Lester,

is being marketed by Group VI of Peachtree City. More than 100 acres remain

after the family sold 60 to the school board, and plans being shown around

the county indicate Group VI wants to develop it as an upscale office

park or high-tech industrial park. Group VI, a recent general contractor

for the Peachtree City Tennis Center construction, is headed by Jim Pace,

current chairman of the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce.

8 Fayette Community Hospital

has proposed an expansion that includes rezoning and annexation of several

acres of land just to the west of the hospital on Hwy. 54. Group VI is

also an agent in that project.

8 Between the Fayette Community

Hospital site and the Lester Farm property, the Rivers family has nearly

2,000 feet of frontage on Hwy. 54. From there, the land holdings stretch

north and out, crossing Sandy Creek Road to include more than 750 acres.

The family hopes to sell the land to a developer around the first of the

year (see related story).

8 Across Hwy. 54 from the hospital,

a developer has purchased 45 acres of land with plans to build a retirement

community.

8 Some see the Sandy Creek

Road corridor as potentially the county's last hope of having a quick,

direct link to the interstate. By widening the road to four lanes, rerouting

it where necessary and possibly making it limited access, the road could

provide a 10-minute commute from the central part of the county to a termination

point at I-85, near where Ga. Highway 74 presently intersects the interstate.

Clearly, the potential for

massive change is real, and the response from governments and developers

is critical. But Chris Clark, executive director of the Fayette County

Development Authority, isn't worried.

"I've got lots of confidence

in our leadership that they will do the right thing in directing the future

of that land," he said. "And the families involved, I know they

have expressed an interest in trying to maintain some kind of legacy."

Sewer access is the key, Clark

agreed. And with the hospital being in the city, that provides a link

to the vast area. And efforts to annex much of it into Fayetteville are

sure to face scrutiny.

All this delights William Hester,

who has operated a single store at the corner of Hwy. 54 and Tyrone Road

for a generation.

He has raised a family and

sent his kids to college on the profits from the little gas station, Hester's

Citgo, which also includes a popular to-go chicken wing business. Over

the years, income steadily grew as traffic grew, he said. Even widening

the road 10 years ago, which forced him to relocate his gas pumps around

to the side of the building, didn't do him in.

And now, the prospects of a

high school going in right next door, not to mention all the other proposals

being bantered about, give him nothing but good feelings about the future.

After all, to a convenience

store owner, more traffic equals more sodas, chips and cigarette sales.

"We're not going anywhere,"

he said, like someone in the audience waiting for the show to start.

"Bring it on, bring it

on."

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