Holly Springs officials recently announced it received a supplemental grant from the Atlanta Regional Commission to conduct a traffic study in the downtown area.
Community Development Director Brantley Day informed the Holly Springs City Council of the $25,000 supplemental grant at the Feb. 18 city council meeting.
Day said the city applied for the Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) supplemental grant in November and recently got word of the award, which is the third LCI grant the city has received in four years.
The $25,000 grant, to which the city will have to provide a $25,000 cash match, will be used to conduct a traffic study of the LCI area, which encompasses the downtown area—about a half-mile to 1 mile radius around the depot.
“This probably will be our most critical study that we may ever do,” Day said, adding he’s following a model much like the one Fulton County used when planning the Crabapple area.
“Early on, they produced a transportation study,” he said. “Instead of coming up with an overlay or a zone or a use for the land, they looked at the transportation first, then they built the use on top of it. It’s really paying off now.”
Day said the goal is to identify road connections or the necessity to build new roads to keep traffic flowing at its most efficient level.
“A lot of times, use ends up driving transportation,” he said. “So, we’re trying make transportation drive use this time.”
In hopes of getting the grant, city officials budgeted for the $25,000 match.
Day said, Feb. 23, that he was expecting the paperwork from the ARC “any day now,” and he hopes to have the project bid out sometime in April or May.
The project must be completed by Dec. 31.
In other business, the city council:
• honored Bob Gellar for his 12 years of service on the city’s planning and zoning commission;
• honored Day as the employee of the fourth quarter of 2009;
• approved, 5-0, appointing Steve Adcock and Kimberly Atlee to the Downtown Development Authority;
• approved, 5-0, the fee schedule for the bodywork therapist license and renewal;
• approved, 5-0, a conditional use permit requested by Mark Whitaker to operate a used car sales business at 2463 Holly Springs Parkway;
• tabled, 5-0, the vote on the text amendments to the city zoning ordinance relating to the bodywork industry, massage therapy establishments and day spa establishments;
• approved, 5-0, the text amendment to the zoning ordinance amending and creating definitions related to massage therapy, bodywork therapy and day spa establishments;
• approved, 5-0, the revised and updated version of the official Holly Springs zoning map; and
• approved, 5-0, an amendment to the Georgia Municipal Employee Benefits Service adoption agreement.
