An image from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs shows a proposal for LaFayette Road in Fort Oglethorpe with modifications to make it more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly.Bicyclists who flock to Chickamauga Battlefield usually bypass Fort Oglethorpe, which bills itself as the gateway to the national military park.
“There’s very little that caters to them,” said Carmen Fischetti, a landscape designer from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. “There’s so many people who go to the park, but they don’t really spend any time or money in Fort Oglethorpe.”
On the mile-long stretch of LaFayette Road leading into the park, bicyclists and pedestrians lack amenities, while historic buildings, such as the old post gym, are surrounded by asphalt, he said.
But that could change under a plan that Fischetti helped draw up to improve LaFayette Road from Battlefield Parkway south to the park’s entrance.
Instead of five lanes, the state concept calls for narrowing the road to three, making room for a paved bicycle path separated from cars and trucks by a landscaped buffer. Existing sidewalks could remain in place.
“Basically, we put the road on a diet,” Fischetti said.
Other improvements proposed in the state “Bicycles to Battlefields” plan include burying power lines, installing new street lamps and signs, and creating a traffic roundabout near the park’s entrance.
Fort Oglethorpe Mayor Lynn Long loves the concept.
“It’d be the best thing that ever happened to the city of Fort Oglethorpe,” said Long, who called fixing up LaFayette Road a “pet project” of his.
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“If somebody doesn’t like it, I’m glad they’re not a rocket scientist because we would have never ended up on the moon,” the mayor said.
No price tag has been attached to the improvements, which are still in the conceptual stage. But the city has applied for federal and state grant money that could pay 80 percent of the cost, Long said.
“Grant monies you don’t pay back, so that’s cash in hand,” he said.
Fort Oglethorpe also is exploring the idea of designating LaFayette Road, and possibly other parts of the city that fit the “slum and blight” designation, as state Opportunity Zones. Doing so would provide tax credits for qualifying businesses for up to $3,500 annually per job created. Tax revenue from new Opportunity Zone businesses could help fund the road’s new landscaping, city officials said.
“The big issue I see is it’s going to take a lot of money,” City Manager Ron Goulart said of the LaFayette Road project. “You have to start somewhere, even if it’s one block at a time. At some point in time, you’d get to the other end.”
One business that both Goulart and Fischetti would like to see move onto LaFayette Road is a hotel on the site of a former bowling alley across from Kmart.
“You could stay at this hotel and bicycle your way into the park. It’s really a bicyclists’ paradise in there,” Fischetti said.
The 150th anniversary of the Battle of Chickamauga comes in the fall of 2013.
“There’s no way we can get this done and completed before that,” Long said. “But if we can get something started, at least we’re showing signs [of improvement].”