The nearly $3 million bridge is under construction, due for completion this summer.
City Manager Kip Padgett told Council the Redevelopment Authority has approved a promissory note on the bridge and asked Council to confirm on record its intent to pay for it but with conditions. First there must be a certificate of occupancy for the bridge, then, one other condition.
"A Certificate of Occupancy is issued for one of the office towers or a developer agreement is secured for the hotel site," Padgett said. "One of those two conditions has to be met. The way the agreement is written with the developer, the city does not pay for the bridge until the conditions are met."
Developer Wendell Starke proposes constructing City View Center Plaza to include two nine-story, 120,000-square-foot office buildings, a parking deck, an 8,000- square-foot conference center and an 11-story 250-room hotel connected to the mountains center by the pedestrian bridge.
Padgett said the bridge was planned several years before Starke announced his development. The idea for a bridge linking Midtown to downtown Gainesville was in the city's 2000 Midtown plan.
'TWEAK' THE SIGN ORDINANCE
City Councilman George Wangemann said he wants a discussion at the next work session and some staff recommendations on how the city's digital sign ordinance can be 'tweaked'. City Planning has spotted a possible violator, a BP station on Thompson Bridge Road, using green instead of the required amber lighting; Wangemann said he likes green; green is BP's color.
"And the green sign seems to fit," Wangemann said. "I trust BP to make that decision rather than the government to make it for them."
City Manager Kip Padgett said the Community Development Department is reviewing digital sign ordinances in other cities and plans to present their findings to City Council.
City Council recently turned down a Hall County School System request to install a multi-colored digital sign on Atlanta Highway in front of the Lanier Career Academy because it did not meet city code.
Developer Wendell Starke proposes constructing City View Center Plaza to include two nine story, 120,000 square foot office buildings, a parking deck, and 8,000 square foot conference center and an 11 story 250 room hotel connected to the Mountains C
The nearly $3-million bridge is under construction, due for completion this summer
City Planning has spotted a possible violator, a BP station on Thompson Bridge Road, using green instead of the required amber lighting; Wangemann said he likes green; green is BP's color
City Councilman George Wangemann said he wants a discussion at the next work session and some staff recommendations on how the city's digital sign ordinance can be 'tweaked'
http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/3/236634