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Roswell loads up on land City purchases properties for parks, economic boost
Alpharetta approves developer’s proposal to recondition facility at iconic Black school
By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com
By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com
ROSWELL, Ga. — Roswell officials are expanding park and recreation programs after agreeing to dish out $6.5 million for more than 20 acres that border Roswell Area Park, once the site of Crabapple Middle School. The City Council unanimously approved the purchase at its Feb. 26 meeting, using funds from the $180 million bond referendum passed in 2022. The area is already zoned for civic use. “This was high priority for quite a long time now,” City Councilman Will Morthland said. The building would alleviate some of the pressure on the Bill Johnson Community Center, he said. The city has already had an agreement with Fulton County Schools to use the fields, he added. Since the new facility for Crabapple Middle School opened in 2021, the school district has used the building as an administrative center. The contract includes a six-month occupancy clause to provide transition time to relocate administrative services.
ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Alpharetta officials have approved new redevelopment and rehabilitation plans at the site of the Bailey Johnson school, a historic facility that served Black North Fulton students through the 1960s. At its Feb. 26 meeting, the City Council approved a change in zoning conditions to allow for the demolition and reconstruction of the school’s historic gymnasium. Developers will reconstruct the facility with a “similar size and design.” Plans also call for a three-story office building to the west of the school and a five-level parking deck in the northwest corner of the site. The three buildings that make up the Bailey Johnson school will be rehabilitated and designated as a historic property. Opened in 1950 as the Alpharetta Colored School, the Bailey Johnson school on Kimball Bridge Road served Black students in first through 12th grade until the desegregation of North Fulton County schools in 1967. The school enrolled roughly 100 students from North Fulton to Dunwoody. It was renamed in 1953 after George Bailey, a blacksmith in Alpharetta who donated the land, and
See LAND, Page 16 AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA
Fulton County School Board Member Katha Stuart speaks at the Roswell City Council meeting Feb. 26 about the city’s $6.5 million purchase of the former Crabapple Middle School. Stuart represents areas in Roswell, Alpharetta, Milton and Mountain Park.
City officials return from strategic trip ► PAGE 3
Employee retirement plan sees red ► PAGE 16
Housing summit panel bemoans today’s market ► PAGE 4
BUSINESS
Love of tea leaves ends up lucrative ► PAGE 8
See PROJECT, Page 15
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