Alpharetta Farmer's Market



The Downtown Alpharetta Farmers Market is in Historic
Downtown Alpharetta, Georgia at the City Hall Parking Lot

Each Saturday - April 16 through October 8

8:00 AM to 12:30 PM

(exceptions: April 16th and Oct 8th will be 9:00 - 2:00)
Open To The Public - Free Admission

You will find farmers with fruits and vegetables, gardeners with fresh flowers and plants, and makers of all sorts of edible home goods from yummy desserts to local raw honey and homemade sauces and jellies.

Named "Best Saturday Morning Excursion" in 2007 by Atlanta Magazine

Great Escape: Wine Tasting In Alpharetta

Welcome to TinderBox Vino 100

Wine Tastings:

If you like a good wine, don't miss our Tinder Box Vino 100 Alpharetta Wine Tasting Events, held every Saturday from 4:30pm-6:30pm. Drop by and sample several featured wines — all for the nominal fee of $10 per person ($5 of which is donated to charity! No RSVP required! Talk wine with our helpful, knowledgeable staff, fellow wine lovers, distributors' reps — and perhaps a vineyard owner from time to time. You'll enjoy our store's warm and relaxing ambience and soothing background jazz music so much, you won't want to leave!
131 South Main Street, Suite G | Alpharetta, GA 30009 | 770-343-8010

Fulton School System Creates Redistricting Maps for New Bethany Bend School



Parents, students and teachers will get a first look at alternative maps proposed for redistricting for the new high school being built on Bethany Bend in Milton Wednesday, March 16. They'll also get a chance to critique the different proposals.
The new high school is being built to relieve overcrowding at existing schools. To accomplish this, existing attendance zones at other North Fulton high schools will be modified to create the new school's attendance zone.

Bethany Bend High School Site Attendance Zone Redistricting



About the redistricting process
Each time a redistricting effort is under way, the school system holds three rounds of meetings to gather information needed to draft a redistricting proposal that best meets the community's needs. Fulton uses a unique process that encourages public discussion before developing a proposal. This allows the community to have maximum input on how the proposed attendance lines are created.


Timeline for Redistricting Process
Meetings will be held and Alpharetta High School (3595 Webb Bridge Road, Alpharetta 30005; click for Google Map) from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.
  • Round One - February 23, 2011
    • School system staff will outline the redistricting process and established ground rules for facilitated small-group input sessions.
    • Participants will move to small-group sessions and give input related to the redistricting criteria.
    • Staff will review public comments and apply Board-approved redistricting criteria to develop alternative attendance zone plans prior to the next community forum
  • Round Two - March 16, 2011
    • Staff will present alternative proposals for new attendance zones.
    • Community members will offer comment on strengths and weaknesses of each plan in facilitated small-group discussions.
    • Prior to the next community forum, staff will condense the number of attendance zone alternatives based on public input.
  • Round Three - April 13, 2011
    • Community members will review and provide input on revised attendance zone draft plans in facilitated small-group discussions.
    • Staff will use comments to develop a final attendance zone recommendation for Board consideration.
The Fulton County Board of Education will be reviewing the new attendance zone recommendations during their meetings. Changes in the attendance zones will go into effect in August 2012 with the opening of the new school.

It’s unanimous: Council approves MetLife mixed-use project at Haynes Bridge near GA. 400

Despite hearing concerns from residents who say a mixed-use development from MetLife at Haynes Bridge Road near Ga. 400 would be bad for Alpharetta, city council voted unanimously to approve a rezoning request for the project.
The project, which includes nearly 500 condominiums and office and retail space, came before council in late January but was tabled and came back to council at Monday’s meeting, where Mayor Arthur Letchas and council members agreed the project would benefit the city economically.
“If everyone would just study this, it’s a great project for Alpharetta,” Letchas said.
Letchas pointed to resident complaints that this project will become another undeveloped site in the city, like Prospect Park, and said MetLife is financially secure.
“You can go out there and build it right now. You have the finances to do that,” Letchas said to the MetLife representatives at the meeting. “Some of these projects we’ve approved didn’t have that financial backing, but you do.”
Letchas also pointed out that MetLife will not begin building this project for three to five years, so the current condominium market is not relevant.
But some residents, such as local blogger Jimmy Gilvin and Windward Homeowners Association representative Tom Miller, have expressed skepticism toward the project since they heard about it.
At the meeting, both residents showed concern that the approved condominiums would become for-rent apartment units and said they believe the city is trying to bring MARTA to Alpharetta.
“For more than five years Alpharetta city officials have been quietly but methodically urbanizing this city in the hope of attracting MARTA,” Gilvin said after reading from a letter reportedly from MARTA’s Office of Transit Planning that states the transit authority has been working with Alpharetta to possibly bring the rail line to the North Point area.
Representatives from MetLife said they had no interest in MARTA and stated the company has no intentions or hopes of trying to have the condominiums rezoned as apartment units.
In addition to the three residents who spoke out against the development, two residents, former Council member John Monson and Richard Debban spoke in favor of the project.
“Most cities in the United States would be tickled pink to have this opportunity to entertain such a development and an organization behind it,” Debban said.
The project was approved with 35 conditions, one of which was that a building permit must be taken out by January 2015.
By Rachel Kellogg
rkellogg@neighbornewspapers.com