GAINESVILLE - While the downtown Gainesville area has blossomed over the past few years, city planners are hoping for much more in the future.
After about a year of working with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, the city's strategic plan for downtown is ready.
City Community Development Director Rusty Ligon and Special Projects Manager Jessica Tullar have been giving presentations about the plan to civic groups. They spoke at the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors meeting Thursday.
Officials at Carl Vinson studied city plans back to the 1960's and conducted focus groups and individual interviews with city residents in drafting the plan.
One of the striking revelations was just how young Gainesville is when it comes to it population.
"We have over a third of our population are millennials, and what's interesting about that, when doing a planning effort such as this, are millennials, more than any other age group, are very interested in living and working in the same place," Tullar said.
She said that group wants an urban downtown area that's pedestrian friendly.
As far as who researchers and city planners talked to, Tullar said it was a diverse group.
"We had a group from Gainesville Middle School, all the way up to Wisdom Keepers, so a broad range of ages, backgrounds (and) interests. We had a lot of natives, non-natives and business owners involved."
Tullar said everyone they talked to was asked to boil the downtown area down into three words. Of those, the word "historic" was number one. That collection of words were also boiled down to four main categories; connectivity, programming, design and economic development.
As far as connectivity, Ligon said Gainesville's downtown area is really outlined by four distinct busy roads, both a good and a bad thing.
"The good is, you really know exactly where it is. The bad part is, it's really demarcated with four roadways that are very hard to cross."
Ideas include creating so called "moats" or islands in the middle of those roads to beautify the area, serve as a safe spot for crossing pedestrians and as a visual reference pointing to downtown.
On the programming front, Tullar said entertainment was a desire.
"We had a couple of young ladies from Brenau (University) share that every Thursday night they head over to Kennesaw to go dancing, at a location that's more in their age group" Tullar said.
"We also had some folks talk about how you go to Dahlonega on any Thursday, Friday, Saturday night and there's a consistent music scene," Tullar added.
While Tullar said study participants indicated the restaurants in the downtown area were excellent, they expressed a desire for more diversity in dining choices. There was also talk of tapping into the food truck trend with food truck sessions at Longwood Park and possibly the old jail property.
Ligon also said the old jail and other city owned property are mentioned as a possible development sites.
"Something that we heard and learned from our folks at the University of Georgia throughout this process is, 'get the buildings right. You have one chance to get these buildings right, don't worry so much about uses,'" Ligon said.
The plan also includes ideas for the midtown area of the city. Tullar said it found that midtown had a great potential for redevelopment.
"This really lends itself to a creative arts and entertainment district that could be mixed with residential and non-residential," Tullar said.
On the design front, Tullar said adding art to utilitarian infrastructure as well planning design of future buildings can help keep with the desired character.
Tullar and Ligon both mentioned an advantage Gainesville has when it comes to its downtown, city owned property that's not in use.
"With the historic character being so important to a lot of people, we wanted to make sure we threw out some ideas of how you could redevelop these properties, or do some infill development that could be respectful of that history but also be new," Tullar said.
As far as the live, work, and play concept, it may be time for it. Ligon said he thinks the market is there for residential space downtown, and that it will draw many age groups, not just millennials .
"We need somebody to do that first project, because once we do that first project, I think it's just going to snowball into more and more."
The new plan identifies short term goals, for as early as next year, on out to five and ten year work items.
The city has published the plan in small books and plans to put it on its website in early December.
The cost of putting the plan together came in at $50,000, according to Ligon. The project was funded by the city and grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Georgia Municipal Association's Downtown Renaissance Partnership.
