Vision 2030 Chairman Rob Fowler says it calls for every for every high schooler in Hall County - by the year 2030 - to have completed a college or technical college course.
Fowler says local education officials have told him there is apparently nothing like it anywhere in the state.
Four of the other fifteen Big Ideas are also getting an initial shove, according to Fowler, who appeared on Sunday's Northeast Georgia This Week on WDUN NEWS TALK 550, like AccessNorthGa.com, a division of Jacobs Media Corp. They are: establishing an outer loop
around Gainesville, healthcare, establishing a health care industry, and construction of a state of the art regional visitors' center on I-985.
Vision 2030 is a Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce initiative which used a series of meetings, starting more than a year ago, to put together a road map for what the greater Gainesville area should look like in 2030:
1. Development in most of Gainesville-Hall County is built around town squares, where people can walk, bike or use golf carts to reach many important services - and people get to know their neighbors easily.
2. All students in Gainesville or Hall County high schools have taken some classes from a post-secondary institution (Gainesville State College, Lanier Technical College, etc.) before they graduate. For some, it means graduation involves receiving three pieces of paper: a diploma,a training certificate from a post-secondary institution and a job offer from an employer.
3. Gainesville-Hall County is a model for providing high-quality, affordable healthcare to its residents. An important part of this initiative is an innovative set of wellness programs, which involves residents in managing their own health.
4. Gainesville-Hall County is a center for healthcare education, employment, life-sciences companies (including veterinary medicine) and medical-devices manufacturers. These industries work closely together on training and research.
5. There is high-speed rail service linking Gainesville with Athens and the University of Georgia and Atlanta and Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, Emory University and Georgia Tech. Each of these destinations is only a 30-minute trip from Gainesville.
6. Gainesville-Hall County has the greatest amount of protected green space (parks, recreation areas and privately owned open land) of any urban county in Georgia. One of its highlights is a network of pathways connecting North Hall, Gainesville and South Hall.
7. There is a major mixed-use community on Lake Lanier, with restaurants, an amphitheater and commercial, retail and residential space. The community is a tourist attraction and considered a model for the creative blending of residential and commercial development.
8. There is a state-of-the-art regional visitors' center near Interstate 985 that makes Gainesville-Hall County the necessary first stop for tourists looking to explore Lake Lanier and the North Georgia mountains.
9. Gainesville-Hall County is the summer lakeside home of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and host of an annual summer music festival that includes a wide range of music indicative of the community, including international music, pops, opera, country, jazz and gospel.
10. Gainesville-Hall County hosts the Southeastern Community Theater Festival, which brings in groups from schools, colleges and local theaters from around the region every year to compete and learn from one another.
11. There are unique arts districts across Gainesville-Hall County, including ones centered on downtown Gainesville (theater, public art, visual arts, etc.), Lake Lanier (music, amphitheater), Chicopee Woods (outdoor art, amphitheater) and Gillsville/Lula (cultural arts, folk art,
pottery).
12. There's an organization whose job is to help Gainesville-Hall County residents connect across racial, ethnic and other barriers. Called OneHall, it is a source of information, leadership development, networking and programs about inclusion and is a reason our community has a good reputation for tolerance and diversity.
13. Gainesville-Hall County's Outreach Center is a national model for integrating residents of all cultures into the life of the community through a multitude of educational, informational, citizenship and English-language programs.
14. The Intercultural Arts Conference Center is a meeting place for groups looking to bring together Gainesville-Hall County's diverse population to work on community issues and a center for ethnic culture and arts. School groups from across the region tour this facility to learn how ethnic groups can work together and learn from one another.
15. There are highway bypasses around Gainesville, and traffic on downtown's Green Street has lessened considerably. The Post Office has been moved to one of the new bypasses, and the historic Green Street area has become a greater community asset.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2007/1/96186