North Fulton CID Considers Windward Turn Lanes, More Landscaping

The Old Milton Parkway interchange might get the same landscaping treatment as other exits on GA 400 by the North Fulton Community Improvement District (CID).

 Ann Hanlon, the North Fulton CID’s chief operation officer, told Alpharetta City Council members that adding the same features as are being installed at Windward Parkway will continue the work of making sure visitors to the district know when they have arrived. The work will create a clean, good impression the minute business people leave the highway.

That project has been designed and is expected to cost $400,000.

Hanlon presented projects the North Fulton CID is considering to the Alpharetta City Council at its retreat on Feb. 3. Most of the district’s 300 parcels–85-90 percent–are in Alpharetta. Only two of the parcels are in Milton, with the rest in Roswell.

Those numbers will change if another one of the projects is successful. The CID board is considering its second expansion, with parcels around Windward Parkway, Old Milton Parkway and Mansell Road being considered. And the district could extend south.

“It’s no secret the city of Roswell has been courting us for a while to expand all the way down to Holcomb Bridge Road,” Hanlon said.

Roswell has plans for landscaping and other aesthetic improvements at that interchange, but the costs are too great for the city to bear alone.

“Our preference is to tackle Alpharetta areas first,” she said.

The commercial property that make up the district are self taxed, raising $2 million a year for projects to benefit those properties.

Brandon Beach, who heads the CID and is a GA Department of Transportation (GDOT) board member, said the strength of the CID is leverage. It can use that $2 million to get $40 million or more in state or federal funding.

Hanlon said often if the CID has a project ready to go, with designs already created, funding will become available from GDOT or the Atlanta Regional Commission.

“If the CID can help get the project designed, ready to go on the shelf, we can be there to take advantage of it,” Hanlon said.

That’s what happened with funding for a ramp project at Windward Parkway that will add a free flowing lane northbound that will continue on to North Point Parkway.

Now the CID is considering a second phase to that project, ending with triple left turn under the overpass, and carrying three lanes all the way to Deerfield Parkway.

Hanlon said that project would be so complex–and expensive–that it might need to be a regional project under provisions of House Bill 277.

Other projects the CID board is considering incude:

• Haynes Bridge Road decorative bridge fencing. Estimated cost, $500,000;
• Westside Parkway lighting and landscaping, Mansell Road to Encore Parkway. Estimated cost, $600,000;
• Wayfinding/Signage for district. Estimated design cost, $40,000;
• Old Milton Parkway @ Morris Road intersection improvement. Estimated concept cost, $27,000;
• Windward Parkway @ Windward Concourse. Estimated concept cost, $28,000;
• Mansell Road intersection improvements at MARTA park and ride lot. Estimated concept cost, $50,000.