In the Spring of 2001, the Fayetteville Downtown Task Force at the urging of Walter Vick, AIA, contacted the AIA North Carolina Urban Design Assistance Team (UDAT) program. The purpose of this contact was to discuss the possibility of assembling a volunteer team of Architects and Planners from across the state of North Carolina to convene in Fayetteville and work with the citizens and the community to develop a Fayetteville Renaissance Plan.

Several meetings were scheduled with North Carolina State University professor and program Executive Director, Peter Batchelor, FAIA, FAICP, to formalize plans for the team's visit in late February of 2002. Mr. Batchelor contacted Mr. Bill Monroe, AIA president and founder of WCM Design Inc. in Charlotte, NC to lead the design team.

Based upon his experience with the UDAT process in Winston-Salem, and the knowledge of the design community from service as past president of AIA North Carolina, Mr. Monroe assembled a select team of design professionals from across the state.

Beginning in November 2001, meetings with the Task Force leaders Mac Healy and Ben Brown were held to initiate the UDAT process. Mr. Healy and Mr. Brown desired for the team to revisit and update a master plan developed for the City in the mid 1990's by Robert Marvin and Associates of Walterboro, SC. This plan, "A Complete Fayetteville Once and for All", Called for an annual review of the plan and the newly formed "Renaissance Fayetteville" group, along with the City of Fayetteville, endorsed the idea of the UDAT team coming to Fayetteville to accomplish this goal.

The Fayetteville Renaissance Plan seeks to rediscover the urban attributes of successful cities and towns. By preserving important threads of the existing fabric and respecting the rich history and heritage of the city, the Fayetteville Renaissance Plan completes and unifies the city with a focus on quality of life issues for its citizens. The plans and design strategies will guide future development and investment in the city core, which are necessary to move toward a Fayetteville Renaissance.

The Urban Design Assistance Team utilized the precedent of Fayetteville's past as a point of departure for the Fayetteville Renaissance Plan. The idea and strategies for development contained in the plan represent the translation into drawings and words of this community's citizens' vision and dreams for the future of Fayetteville. The plan provides the framework for realization of this vision over the next 25 years.

The Fayetteville Renaissance UDAT wishes to thank the citizens of Fayetteville for their hospitality and for sharing their dreams with us. We also thank the Arts Council Staff for providing not only a studio space as an incubator for the Fayetteville Renaissance Plan but also for giving generously of staff time in support of our efforts. Mac Healy and Ben Brown provided Task force leadership from the start and orchestrated the forums, which provided the opportunity for Fayetteville citizens to provide input for the plan's development.