Residents Meet to Discuss New Plan for W. Fairview Avenue
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The Montgomery city planning commission held a public meeting today to lay out plans to renovate West Fairview Avenue.
David and Margaret McNeil have lived near West Fairview Avenue for 27 years. They say the entire area needs a facelift.
“I’m just happy to see that we’re getting ready to clean up and beautify the west area,” says Margaret.
But they say renovations in their area often move slow.
“It’s like the little small park down there by McDonalds,” says David. “It takes forever to get that done and we know that it don’t take that long to fix that small project.”
There may be a reason progress along the road has been slow. West Fairview Avenue adopted Smart Code in 2010, a type of zoning that allows people to live and work in the same mini-community and focuses more on the exterior look of a development. Business owners found Smart Code restrictions to be too expensive and stayed away from developing on West Fairview Avenue. Now that Smart Code has been repealed, city leaders are looking ahead.
“I need to see some greenery,” says City Councilman David Burkette. “I need to see some upscale buildings, some upscale business, a cleaner West Montgomery.”
But some people are sketical about the city’s plans. Residents were promised a similar plan several years ago, that never came to pass.
“They don’t have a start date,” says William Boyd. “They have no completion date. They don’t know the cost that it’s going to cost to complete the project. I feel as though they are selling us a false dream.”
Though Montgomery’s Director of Planning, Robert Smith, says the project is being engineered right now and will have a definite outcome.
“The federal projects, they take a very long time before you see dirt turning, construction underway. And we ask that they bear with us, just give us a little while longer.”
Those with the planning commission say the new restrictions on pay day loan lenders, which requires them to be more spaced out, will also help this area turn around.
