City News - October 2019

CITY NEWS October 2019

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V ALL E T E T H S E Y O Y T I P A C MIC R F O N W U E P ECO N H T NARD WI NS TWO O ON GG FORW AT SPA N I DE MOVIN NING TH L I AN ILL L BU V P E T T YET MEN P FA ELO V E D DES A C DE

See pages 4 - 9

City welcomes new employees

Above: Kirsten Zackery and Carmen Scott have joined the Customer Service Team at City Hall. Right: Police Officers Andrew Berenyi and Sheldon Hogan along with Administrative Clerk Gwenita Biggins were recently welcomed to the Fayetteville Police Department. Below-left: Police Officer Recruits Shawn Searce and Joshua Hewitt are in training at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth. Belowright: Officer Kathryn Gonzalez was recently sworn in by the Police Department Command Staff.

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LATEST news

upcoming events

fayeteville-ga.gov/NEWS

fayeteville-ga.gov/events

Woodgate repaving commences October 21 Three streets in the Woodgate residential subdivision are scheduled for repaving beginning Monday, October 21. The work, weather permitting, is expected to be completed by October 31.

Woodgate Way, Woodgate Drive, and Woodstream Way are the roads to be repaved, and the Fayetteville Public Works Department is asking residents and guests to keep vehicles off these roads during the construction project so the roadwork vehicles and crews will have access to the streets.

Local traffic will still be accommodated, as only one lane will be closed at a time.

Please use caution when driving through the subdivision, and watch for flaggers, who will be directing traffic around construction vehicles.

State extends burn ban

Friday , October 18 Fayetteville Pink Out >>> Fayetteville City Hall, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month; wear your pinkest pink, enjoy pink refreshments, walk the pink carpet, take a pink selfie and share it with #PinkOutFayetteville.

Friday & Saturday, October 18 & 19 Annual Cemetery Walk >>> Fayetteville City Cemetery on Stonewall Avenue (Hwy. 54 eastbound), 6:30-9:30 p.m., sponsored by the Holliday Dorsey Fife Museum. HDFHouse.com Saturday, October 26 The Great Pumpkin Festival >>> Historic Courthouse Lawn, 5-9 p.m., children’s costume contest, live band, Trick or Treat Village, courthouse train and hay rides, inflatables, vendors, food trucks; decorated pumpkins will be displayed around the lawn from Friday morning through Tuesday. (See Pages 19 and 20.)

Wednesday, November 6 Shred & Recycle Day >>> Fayetteville City Hall, 9 a.m. to noon, bring up to 10 boxes of paper to shred, plus bring your old electronics to recycle (no TVs).

Saturday, November 9 Extra Shred Day >>> Fayetteville City Hall, 9 a.m. to noon, bring up to 10 boxes of paper to shred.

Due to the continuing drought conditions in our area, The City of Fayetteville Fire Department in cooperation with the State of Georgia will continue with the Burn Ban on all outdoor burning within the City limits of Fayetteville until further notice.

The severe drought condition in our immediate area poses a higher than normal Fire Risk to our community. Fire Department officials will continue to evaluate conditions on a weekly basis and will determine if outdoor burning will be allowed once conditions improve.

In 54 Georgia counties, primarily in the northern part of the state and including Fayette, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division sets annual summer burning restrictions to reduce emissions from ground level ozone that may jeopardize air quality. Those restrictions are normally lifted from Oct. 1 through April 30 annually. Even after the general ban is lifted, residents wishing to burn outdoors must comply with special rules and must get a free burning permit through the state website GaTrees.org.

Want to sponsor an event or become a volunteer?

Contact Joyce Waits 770-719-4173 jwaits@fayetteville-ga.gov

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BREAKS GROUND ON NEW CITY HALL & CITY CENTER PARK City leaders, builders and community members broke ground October 1 on the new Fayetteville City Hall & City Center Park, which represents a milestone along the path to creating a more vibrant and engaging downtown space for the whole community to enjoy.

with performance facilities, dog park, and will also incorporate renovations of two existing structures, the historic Fayette County High School Gymnasium and the industrial-looking Bus Barn.

A two-acre tract fronting West Stonewall Avenue will be home to a new, two-story City Hall building that will be set within a walkable, inviting plaza offering spaces for light exercise and quiet reflection.

Beyond that, a meandering walking path and outdoor classroom lead down a gentle slope to City Center Park.

Overlooking the southern edge of the park space will be the new Walton Communities mixed-use development, which is expected to begin construction in the spring.

New public streets and parking areas will tie in with these new and existing developments, including the adjacent Fayette County Administrative Complex and Fayette County Public Library.

Amenities lined up for the eight-acre park space include a concrete stream, children’s splash pad and playground, walk-around pond, picnic pavilion, a grand lawn

“This is an historic day for Fayetteville,” said City Manager Ray Gibson. “The vision to build this new City Hall and park space began about four years ago as

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the City leadership team, Mayor Johnson, and our City Council members discussed strategies to make sure the City of Fayetteville was well prepared for the growth happening and anticipated in the local area.

“One key element we all agreed needed to be addressed was our current City Hall building, which was originally a school house many decades ago,” Gibson continued.

“It has served the community well over the quarter of a century it has been used as a city hall building, but we decided to look at the feasibility of constructing a purpose-built facility to better accommodate City staff, offer more engaging spaces for the public to enjoy, and establish a new City Center to give our downtown more of a sense of place.”

to the discussion table and to help shape the course of things to come.

“We listened to what our citizens had to say about building an environment in our downtown district where they could bring their families, meet with other residents, and more openly engage their City government,” Gibson said.

Throughout those years of researching and planning, members of the public were invited

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According to Downtown Development Director Brian Wismer, demolition of the Board of Education administrative buildings will commence in the coming weeks, and construction of the new City Hall building and park space should follow shortly after. Construction of the entire, 10-acre development is expected to be completed by late 2020 or early 2021, depending on the weather.

A TRULY GROUNDB Breaking ground for the new Fayetteville City Hall & City Center Park were (l-r) Rob Ragan with New South Construction, Eric Johnson with Comprehensive Program Services, City Council members Paul Oddo and Kathaleen Brewer, Mayor Ed Johnson, Council Member Scott Stacy, Mayor Pro-Tem Rich Hoffman, City Manager Ray Gibson, and Amy Bell with Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood.

The City is repurposing the old Fayette County High School Gym and the more recent Bus Barn and incorporating them into the new City Center Park landscape.

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BREAKING EVENT! The new City Hall is being designed with two fronts: One that faces the highway and another that overlooks the new City Center Park.

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uilding on purpose FAYETTEVILLE MOVING FORWARD WITH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLANNING THAT SPANS TWO DECADES

Looking back at least two decades, Fayetteville leaders have been tasked with revitalizing the City’s historic downtown district to retain its small-town charm and character while accommodating the continual population and tourism growth.

Generally categorized as “economic development”, these efforts would not only be good for the community’s financial bottom line, but they would also maintain and eventually increase the quality of life that spurred the population growth in the first place.

As Fayetteville entered the new millennium, momentum picked up, and the City celebrated many successes, working mainly through the Downtown Development Authority and the Main Street Tourism Association. Historic buildings were targeted and even relocated for preservation. Design standards were improved to ensure a quality look and feel as new buildings and renovations were approved for the Historic Downtown district.

The economic downturn of 2008 stalled local construction projects almost entirely, and most of Fayetteville’s revitalization and economic development plans were put on hold for a few years, but

City leaders never lost sight of their mandate. By 2010, with the help of the Atlanta Regional Commission and federal grant funding, economic development and downtown revitalization studies completed seven years earlier were updated and published. A few years later, the local economy improved, construction projects resumed, and City leaders revisited previous visions of revitalizing Downtown Fayetteville.

When City Manager Ray Gibson was hired in the fall of 2014, he understood from the outset that revitalization and redevelopment of Fayette’s county seat was a top priority. Soon after, plans were coming together for a project that would tie together the economic 8 - October 2019

development and revitalization efforts of the past with a bold approach to ensure Fayetteville’s future prosperity as place where people in the Atlanta area would want to live, work, play and stay. Five years later, on the morning of October 1, 2019, community leaders and developers broke ground on the new 10-acre City Hall & City Center Park.

Located just two blocks from the current Fayetteville City Hall, this new project will include the community’s first-ever purpose-built city hall building. It will overlook a park space designed to bring neighbors together and welcome guests from all over the region. It will also serve as a catalyst for additional economic development, as several mixed-use construction

projects are already lined up for the immediate area surrounding the new City Hall & City Center Park.

Construction on the new City Hall & City Center Park is scheduled to begin in late October 2019 and to be completed by late 2020 or early 2021, depending on the weather.

Although primarily focused in the Historic Downtown district, the City also offers economic development incentives city-wide to help attract more of the quality growth local citizens say they want to see.

One highly visible example of an economic development incentive is the Fayetteville Downtown

Development Authority’s Facade Improvement Program, which was used to refresh the fronts of several stores along the Courthouse Square facing the Historic Fayette County Courthouse. More information on that program can be found online: Fayetteville-GA-gov/ EconomicDevelopment.

Tax Allocation Districts are another economic development tool used to help eligible property owners make capital improvements that benefit the public while leveraging their future property taxes for a period of time to help offset the expenses.

“We have several other economic development tools we can use as well,” said Fayetteville Downtown Development Director Brian Wismer.

“If it’s the right fit for our City, there is a lot we can do to help bring those businesses and organzations here.”

Wismer said the short list of business types the City is seeking to recruit include: regional and corporate headquarters; tourism-related businesses or activities; cultural arts activities and associated businesses; local or unique boutique restaurants and retail; technology firms such as fintech, health IT, and data centers; and creative, digital, and gaming media.

Wismer noted that the City works closely with the Fayette County Development Authority (FCDA) to work out Fayetteville’s economic development agenda.

“We have a great working relationship with FCDA, and as we continue to grow as a City, that partnership is becoming more and more valuable,” Wismer said. “We’re excited about the opportunties ahead of us.”

These storefronts along Fayetteville’s Courthouse Square (top-left and above) are beautiful beneficiaries of the Downtown Development Authority Façade Grant program. Dating back two decades, the Fayette Pavilion shopping center (left) is one of Metro Atlanta’s largest and most vibrant retail districts. Currently, City leaders are working with Fayette Pavilion owners to encourage a more diverse mix of uses within the tenant portfolio to ensure long-term viability. The City’s Economic Development team has worked with the Fayette County Development Authority and the Fayette County government to bring Pinewood Atlanta Studios (below) to Fayetteville.

copyright © 2018 Pinewood Atlanta LLC 9 - October 2019

Above: Fayetteville firefighters train on the roof of a former Fayette County Board of Education building that will soon make way for the new Fayetteville City Hall. Firefighters were practicing cutting roof openings, which can help vent smoke and detect fire sources.

Below: Fayetteville Public Safety personnel in October are wearing various forms of pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Visit Us!

Fayetteville-GA.gov - May 2019 10 6- October 2019

Above: The Infinity Glam Group officially opened shop in late September at 692 North Glynn Street near the northside Waffle House, and City leadership were on hand to help them cut the ribbon. Below: Foster care ministry Bloom, which was formerly called Fayette Youth Protection Home, cut the ribbon on their new training and donation sorting center along Hwy. 54 West at Marquis Drive. The building was originally occupied by Du Rock Barbecue decades ago.

Follow Us!

@fayettevillega.gov - May 2019 11 7- October 2019

Construction in the Community Development updates from around Fayetteville (See location map on Page 14)

1. Fayette Self Storage - 105,000 sq. ft. rental storage facility on approximately three acres.

2. New Holiday Inn Express - Will be a four-story hotel with 83 rooms.

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3. Pinewood Forest Central Park - This combination of amenaties lies between the two residential phases.

4. An office tower at Pinewood Forest - Construction continues, opening this year.

5. Pinewood Forest - Parking garage for Capstone buildings is under construction.

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Construction in the Community Continued

Construction locations within the City

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6 6. Air Evac is building a helicopter pad and a support facility on Promenade Parkway on the north side of Fayetteville.

7. Satterfield Property -The first of several buildings will include Aspen Dental, Tropical Smoothie, Stanton Optical & Eye Lab, and Chipotle. A tenant for the fifth suite has yet to be determined.

8. Knight Development is building their headquarters building at this site along Whitney Street.

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Welcome New Fayetteville Businesses

Below: Ionic VR officially opened its doors Tuesday, October, 15 on 834 South Glynn Street, City leadership were on hand to help them cut the ribbon.

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The Great Pumpkin Festival returns October 26

The Great Pumpkin Festival returns to Downtown Fayetteville on Saturday evening, October 26, on the Historic Courthouse Lawn. Again this year, Main Street Fayetteville and Fayetteville First United Methodist Church have teamed up to make this a familyfriendly event to remember.

The festival fun actually begins early on Friday, October 25, as schools and other community groups bring decorated pumpkins to line the sidewalks at the Historic Courthouse Lawn. Judges will award prizes in various categories of displayed pumpkins at 1 p.m.

that day. Pumpkin displays will remain on the lawn until Tuesday, October 29, and the community is invited to enjoy self-guided tours and to enjoy dining and shopping while they are on the Courthouse Square.

The culmination of the festival happens Saturday evening, 5 to 9, as participants enjoy live music, face painting, rock painting, sand art, balloon shaping, inflatables and games! The annual costume contest for kids 13 and under is a highlight of the event, as well as the Trick or Treat Village on the adjacent Fayetteville First United

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Methodist Church lawn. Admission and most attractions are free.

Informational and retail vendors will also be on hand as well as a food truck!

Pumpkin artists asked to remove their creations no later than Tuesday, October 29.

If you are interested in displaying decorated pumpkins on the Courthouse grounds or volunteering at the festival, contact Main Street Fayetteville at 770719-4173 or Joyce@fayetteville-ga. gov.

To learn more, visit fayetteville-ga.gov/tgpf2019.