2. Vision for Fort Valley
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Travis Campbell Ann Carpenter Wendy Dyson Raushan Johnson Oliver Obregón Lynn Patterson Alex Pearlstein Aidan Poile Jason Ward Professor Nancey Green Leigh, Ph.D., AICP Professor John Skach, AIA Professor Richard Dagenhart Atlanta, December 2002 © By the authors above, Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta, GA 30332-0415 Acknowledgements The Georgia Tech Fort Valley Brownfield Studio Thanks Members wish to thank City of Fort Valley Mayor John to all! Stumbo, Fort Valley State University President Kofi Lomotey, Mike Lucas, Becky Svatos, Kyle Bryant, Dr. Dorothy Jenkins, Dr. Seema Dhir, Dr. Sarwan Dhir, Marvin Crafter, Gloria Stanberry-Cotney, Martha Harris, Olga Perry, and all other helpful persons for their valuable contributions and insight on Fort Valley which facilitated the creation of this report. alley V s n t o i r t c o I-2 e F n n M o a k i n g C Table of Contents page Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. I-2 List of figures ........................................................................................................... I-5 List of tables ............................................................................................................. I-7 Studio participants .................................................................................................. I-8 Introduction ............................................................................................................. I-10 I. The Region, the County, and the City ...................................................................... G-1 1. Studio Methodology ........................................................................................ G-1 2. Vision for Fort Valley ...................................................................................... G-3 3. Historical Background .................................................................................... G-4 4. Current Conditions in Fort Valley ................................................................... G-11 5. Regional Context ............................................................................................. G-14 6. Fort Valley in the Regional Context ................................................................ G-16 6.1 Population ................................................................................................................ G-16 6.2 Socio-economic status ............................................................................................. G-17 6.3 Employment ............................................................................................................. G-20 6.4 Housing .................................................................................................................... G-20 6.5 Topography .............................................................................................................. G-21 6.6 Infrastructure ............................................................................................................ G-22 7. Development Tools ......................................................................................... G-27 7.1 Universities as economic engines .,.......................................................................... G-27 7.2 Tourism .................................................................................................................... G-30 7.3 Other essential strategies ......................................................................................... G-32 8. Overview of Proposed Projects ....................................................................... G-35 9. Citywide Projects ............................................................................................ G-39 9.1 Bike path system (Project G1) ................................................................................. G-39 9.2 Protection of orchards (Project G2).......................................................................... G-43 9.3 Welcome gateways (Project G3)............................................................................... G-45 9.4 Revision of comprehensive plan and zoning (Project G4) ...................................... G-48 II. North District ........................................................................................................... B-1 1. District Vision ................................................................................................. B-1 2. General Description of District ....................................................................... B-2 3. District Projects ............................................................................................... B-3 3.1 Blue Bird facilities (Projects B1 and B9) ................................................................ B-3 3.2 Five Points roundabout (Project B2) ....................................................................... B-8 3.3 Vineville district and housing (Projects B3 and B10) .............................................. B-15 3.4 North Camellia (Project B4) .................................................................................... B-18 3.5 Commercial Heights redevelopment (Projects B5, B11 and B12) .......................... B-20 3.6 Ice house (Project B6) ............................................................................................. B-22 3.7 Landfill and sewage plant (Project B7) ................................................................... B-24 3.8 Cemetery (Project B8) ............................................................................................. B-25 4. Conclusions ................................................................................................ B-27 alley V s n t o i r t c o I-3 e F n n M o a k i n g C III. Central District ....................................................................................................... D-1 1. District Vision ................................................................................................. D-1 2. General Description of District ....................................................................... D-2 2.1 Woolfolk Chemical site ............................................................................................ D-2 2.2 Main Street/downtown core ..................................................................................... D-3 2.3 Current conditions .................................................................................................... D-4 3. District Projects ............................................................................................... D-5 3.1 Woolfolk site edge remediation (Project D1) .......................................................... D-5 3.2 Southwestern Railroad Heritage Center (Project D2) .............................................. D-12 3.3 Austin Theater revitalization (Project D3) ............................................................... D-19 3.4 Environmental Resource Center (Project D4) ......................................................... D-24 3.5 Vacant Church Street lots (Project D5) .................................................................... D-26 3.6 Brownfields affected by Woolfolk site (Project D6) ................................................ D-27 3.7 Main street facade reconstructions (Project D7) ...................................................... D-30 3.8 Former hotel at Church Street and Commercial Heights (Project D8) .................... D-33 3.9. Lowe Street/Church Street vacant lot (Project D9) ................................................ D-37 3.10 Former soda water bottling site/cafe site (Project D10) ........................................ D-39 4. Conclusions ..................................................................................................... D-40 IV. South District ........................................................................................................... U-1 1. District Vision ................................................................................................. U-1 2. General Description of District ....................................................................... U-1 3. Fort Valley State University: History and Relations with the City ................. U-2 4. District Projects ............................................................................................... U-6 4.1 University District redevelopment strategy (Project U1) ........................................ U-6 4.2 Community-based partnership (Project U2) ............................................................ U-7 4.3 Seek HBCU/CDBG grants (Project U2a) ................................................................ U-11 4.4 Increase of housing opportunities (Project U3) ....................................................... U-12 4.5 Economic node at Carver Drive and State University Drive (Project U4) .............. U-18 4.6 Street improvements (Project U5) ........................................................................... U-20 4.7 State University Drive gateway (Project U6) .......................................................... U-24 4.8 Ganoville historic district (Project U7) .................................................................... U-25 4.9. Reduction of university-community separation (Project U8) ................................. U-28 4.10 Public transportation link (Project U9) .................................................................