By CATHY VAUGHT
Fayetteville citizens who wanted to maintain their quality of life stepped up and achieved a major victory last Thursday on March 21.
They hype and controversy of the last three months surrounding a proposal to build Avila Fayetteville, a 254 (down from the original 265) horizontal cottage-style apartment complex on 30 acres of land at the intersection of Highway 54 and Gingercake Road had finally come to an end.
Based on recommendations by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, the Fayetteville City Council voted overwhelmingly to deny the request by NexMetro and HGF Development/Rochester to amend the future land use map. Doing so would have given the green light to rezone three land parcels from Residential Commercial to Residential Multi-Family (RMF-15). Construction would have followed.
Many of the citizens who voiced their opinions at the February 27, 2024 Planning and Zoning meeting likely influenced and reinforced the commission’s decision to recommend non-approval of these future land use map and rezoning requests. The comments provided by citizens at that meeting were echoed at the 21 March 2024 City Council meeting.
These comments included potential drainage and retention pond overflow, leakage from those retention ponds into a stream emptying into nearby Bennett Lake, soil erosion, lack of adequate parking and increased traffic problems spilling over into an already congested intersection.
A seasoned school bus driver expressed concern over child safety on Gingercake Road because of the potential traffic problems caused by this development. Another citizen read angry reviews from similar developments in Arizona and Texas, where residents there complained about continuous price increases, unresponsive staff, excessive noise, to include continuous, unabated dog barking day and night, as well as thin walls that do not keep out any kind of noise.
Another citizen commented that if Avila Fayetteville was being…
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