Alpharetta took a step closer to a new downtown Monday with a City Council vote to authorize the marketing and sale of $29 million in bonds.
Money from the sale will be used to construct a 47,000-square-foot city hall, a parking deck with 460 spaces, a park and green space set aside for possible future development.
The city has also left three acres for a 25,000-square-foot Atlanta-Fulton County Library branch, which is being funded through a county bond issue.
Support for the project has been overwhelming. The bond referendum received more than 78 percent approval in last month's municipal election.
"I think it is much needed," resident Victor Hawa said. "It brings downtown to a point where it can compete with neighboring communities, and it gives us something we don't have now."
Mayor Arthur Letchas said Alpharettans are making the project happen without facing a tax increase. Residents pay $7 million a year in bond debt, but that will drop to $2 million after this year when the city retires two other bonds issued for parks and road improvements.
The new proposal has no private partnerships. All the land is city-owned. The city paid $4.5 million for the final eight acres acquired during the past year.
Plans also call for moving Haynes Bridge Road farther to the east to establish a contiguous campus.
Residents packed about a half-dozen early drafting meetings held this fall, and the city plans to hold more information sessions early next year to refine residents' ideas on building designs and general aesthetics of the project.
The current City Hall at 2 S. Main St. was built in 1956 when Alpharetta had 1,300 residents; it now has 57,551. Municipal government has outgrown the building and now leases office space outside of downtown.
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