Jones tapped for MHS Interim principal for this year ►►PAGE 10
Coleman project denied
Santa visits Slope’s
‘Needs more work’ says city ►►PAGE 15
St. Nick comes to local shop ►►PAGE 14
&
Get out the vote Election preview ►►PAGE 29
Friday night lights High school football results ►►PAGE 22-25
Alpharetta-Roswell
REVUE NEWS
October 30, 2014 | northfulton.com | 75,000 circulation Revue & News, Johns Creek Herald, Milton Herald & Forsyth Herald combined | 50¢ | Volume 32, No. 43
Alpharetta approves Avalon Phase II Hotel, conference center, apartments included By JONATHAN COPSEY jonathan@appenmediagroup.com
JONATHAN COPSEY/STAFF
Sue Horner Steinwart slowly cleans grime from an old gravestone as part of preservation efforts by the Roswell Historical Society.
GRAVE WORK »
Volunteers clean gravestones Wipe away dirt to clear up past By JONATHAN COPSEY jonathan@appenmediagroup.com ROSWELL, Ga. – On the sunny morning of Saturday, Oct. 25, schoolchildren and volunteers
pick their way among the gravestones at the Old Roswell Cemetery on Woodstock Road. It is a fitting activity for Halloween-time. The event was to clean and restore some of the fading inscriptions on the headstones, which, after more than 100 years, some of the
See GRAVESTONES, Page 26
ALPHARETTA, Ga. – With a 6-1 vote, Avalon’s second phase was approved by the Alpharetta City Council Oct. 27, paving the way for a hotel and conference center, along with hundreds of new apartments. Mark Toro, of North American Properties, Avalon’s developer, asked council to approve 276 more for-rent apartments as well as increase building heights for a parking deck, Class A office building and hotel. Phase II for Avalon will also feature a proposed conference center. There are already 250 for-rent apartments in the first phase of Avalon, along with 101 single-family homes. Rather than add more park space, Toro pitched in $1 million to the city to put toward any public spaces within 3 miles of Avalon. That covers much of downtown Alpharetta. The project was approved by council with 54 conditions of approval. These included, among other things, traffic studies, public trails and landscaping requirements. As well as the office space and hotel, the plan will include plenty of apartments
Our future is inextricably linked to Avalon. We need Avalon to be a home run.” DAVID BELLE ISLE Alpharetta mayor
above retail space. “There is an overwhelming demand for all three aspects [of Avalon] – convention, retail and office,” said Peter Tokar, Alpharetta’s economic development director. “There is also an absolute need for Class A office space. Alpharetta has 10 percent vacancy now, which is the lowest in metro Atlanta.” Councilmember Jim Gilvin, the lone opposition to the project, said he was concerned over the convention center. “What is presented to us is not a complete plan,” he said. “The convention center is not resolved.” The city and Avalon are still discussing details of a public-private partnership on the convention center. As such, Gilvin suggested it was premature to come to council with plans for one if the deal could never materialize.
See AVALON, Page 4