Alpharetta OKs Spending $2.83 Million on City Center Site Work

A groundbreaking will be held April 22 for the downtown project, but approval of a land disturbance permit should allow actual work to begin before that.

Alpharetta City Administrator Bob Regus said mark your calendars again for April 22, as the city will break ground for its City Center project in downtown Alpharetta at 10 a.m. Alpharetta has been planning a City Center for many years, with two false starts in pubic-private ventures before the city went on its own to renovate a big chunk of downtown property. In two weeks, ground will be broken for the project, which includes a new City Hall, a parking structure and a small park. Room has been set aside for a new Alpharetta library branch that the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System plans to build at the same time. Alpharetta City Council approved during a meeting Monday night to spend $2.83 million for Choate Construction to proceed with…

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Alpharetta Considers Hiring Economic Development Staffer, Funding Special Events

Tonight's City Council meeting will include the first reading of a mid-year budget ordinance.

Alpharetta might use a mid-year budget adjustment as a chance to hire another economic development employee and beef up its special events. Finance Director Tom Harris will present the mid-year budget plans and ordinance at tonight's meeting, Feb. 18, at Alpharetta City Hall. The city would hire an economic development at a cost of $38,000 for the final four months of the fiscal year that ends June 30. A full year would cost the city an estimated $98,000 in salary and benefits. The agenda item's supporting document says the economic development manager "ill assist the Economic Development Director in implementing the city’s economic development goals (e.g. promoting economic growth, job creation, business retention and recruitment, etc…

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Alpharetta City Council Approves City Center Design Plans

Work will begin on the site as early as February with the removal of underground gas storage tanks.

 Alpharetta City Council took another big step toward development of the City Center site this week by approving a design development plan. Any major changes to the building or site plan designs after this point would send their architects and designers literally back to the drawing board and cost more money. The biggest snag the city has encountered has been poor soil underneath the property, which will cost more than $1 million than was planned. Mike Hall of Jones, Lange Lasalle, the city's project manager said the City Center's budget has to be adjusted to make the numbers meet. The project is still expected to remain within the $29 million approved by voters in a bond referendum. The design development approved includes the location …

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Alpharetta Approves Amended City Center Site Plan

Reoriented parking garage, road and larger green spaces OK'd by City Council.

Alpharetta City Council approved a City Center site plan change designed to make more residents happy by saving what's been called the largest tree on site and moving parking access closer to the new City Hall and library sites. Before the vote, the city's architect and landscape architectural firm updated City Council and residents on the latest proposals for the downtown site. The actual vote was delayed after Councilman Jim Gilvin said he was not willing to vote on a plan he couldn't actually see before he voted. What was shown in a PowerPoint presentation appeared different on the screen than what he had seen earlier in the day, but the architect didn't provide a copy. After a short recess, the copies were provided and the site plan …

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Alpharetta City Center Plans Save Tree, Enlarge Park

Answering concerns voiced by residents and some council members, the downtown development's architect reoriented a parking garage and a street in the latest site plan proposal.

UPDATED 4:45 p.m.: Watch the video to hear Architect David Schwarz explain why City Hall shouldn't be moved out of the Brooke Street Park area, and Jean Aldy show where trees will be saved and reforestation will occur. The lead architect for Alpharetta's City Center revealed two proposed major changes to the downtown property's site plan that would save a large oak tree and enlarge the city park on the property to just over 5 acres. The 450-space parking garage was shown reorinted to north-south to shift it away from a 48-50 inch oak tree. The shfit also moved a main pedestrian access point to the parking garage much closer to the City Hall and Alpharetta library branch locations, which was another concern voiced in prevoius updates at …

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Alpharetta Residents Repeat Complaints, Praise About City Center

City Council and local residents heard an update and an explanation of the current plan from the city's lead architect for the project at Monday night's meeting.

Alpharetta residents heard the second update on the City Center project in as many weeks, and comments fell along the same lines as before in support and against the current plan. Accusations were thrown out that the city already had plans to make plans to change the new Haynes Bridge Road route from two lanes to four. But those were dismissed by Pete Sewczwicz, director of Engineering and Public Works. He told those local residents at Monday night's City Council meeting that the widening that is suspected is because it will include four-foot wide bike lanes and an eight-foot wide sidewalk. "The roundabout stays, yes," he said. "The road was specifically designed for 25 mph, so I can't post it any higher than 25 mph." Sewczwicz's comments …

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City Council Approves Revised City Center Plans

Alpharetta's City Council majority approves City Center plans after successful revisions.

Alpharetta's City Center plans were approved at Monday's City Council meeting, and more changes are anticipated for the parking and service support areas of the City Hall building. The size of the park area near the library also could change. Monday's City Council meeting was planned as a workshop, however, the meeting allowed for community members to voice their concerns about the revised plans for the City Center.  Architects presented the most recent revisions, including the proposal to shift what they are calling street "E" to the west toward Main Street by 20 feet. "It still should work in alignment with the traffic signal at the current intersection," said a representative from the design team at Smallwood and Reynolds.  By changing …

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With City Hall Closed Today, Alpharetta Swears in its New Mayor on Tuesday

David Belle Isle takes the oath of office, along with new council members Jimmy Gilvin and Michael Cross.

City Halls in Milton and Alpharetta are closed today, Jan. 2, for the New Year's holiday. That's caused Alpharetta to move its City Council meeting to Tuesday, Jan. 3. A new mayor starts his term after being sworn in Tuesday night, along with two new council members. David Belle Isle, who previously served part of a term on City Council, takes over as mayor He'll be joined on the City Council dais by newcomers Michael Cross and Jimmy Gilvin. Donald Mitchell won a special election to fill a seat vacated by Doug DeRito, and was sworn into office in late November 2011, so the City Council has a radically different look. D.C. Aiken, Chris Owens and Mike Kennedy round out the council. Before Tuesday's meeting begins, a public reception will be …

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Mold Closes Conference Room in Alpharetta City Hall

Alpharetta had to close off a conference room because of mold on Monday, Oct. 3 as a precaution. When a conference was being held in an Alpharetta City Hall conference room often used by City Council for executive sessions, one of the participants noticed the carpet was wet and a bit squishy. Investigation showed a small sink in the room had been leaking for some time. A section of wall underneath the sink had mold growing on it, so Assistant City Administrator James Drinkard had the room closed off until mold remediation specialists have a look at the problem.

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What Do Alpharetta Residents Think of City's Downtown Plans?

The city wants more input on the new concept for development on its 22 acres of property.

After two months of comments online and in public meetings, Alpharetta has revised its plan for downtown Alpharetta, but it's not done yet. Local residents and property owners who missed the July 21 meeting–and even those who were there–are being asked to take a look at what's been done and offer more thoughts on the latest version. Sixteen people have already done that online as of Tuesday morning, July 26. Most supported some, if not all, of the ideas of the plan. Those who commented on saving the existing City Hall building, which the new concept supports, were mixed in their thoughts. Some liked the idea, saying it would preserve the character, while others said the old building doesn't fit the current character of downtown. "The …

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Travis Allen

11:01 am on Sunday, July 31, 2011

Right, don't forget that BOTH Milton AND Alpharetta are getting new libraries.   more ›