Envision 2030 releases draft report on future goals for Forsyth County
Jennifer Sami
06/01/07
The future of the Cumming-Forsyth County community may be contained within a 34-page document. The Envision 2030 Draft Vision Statement and Action Steps report released Thursday provides the near-final plan resulting from endless hours of input from more than 1,200 community members.
"I think the report is just very comprehensive and I am so pleased with the quality of the output," said Carter Barrett, Envision 2030 co-chair.
"There are large things in there that will take a large collaborative effort and there are small things that can be pursued right away," he said. "It will take many people coming together to accomplish some of these goals, but we are in an economically viable and vibrant community, and you really can accomplish great things when you get the right people and the right chairs at the right time."
The draft includes a list of 13 dramatic changes to expect, should the plan be implemented, as well as the action steps toward accomplishing these changes.
The changes focus on improving and maintaining quality of life, balancing economic with residential growth, becoming a community of lifelong learning, expanding current recreational offerings and creating additional recreational offerings, increasing tourism, enhancing employment, protecting the environment, establishing an innovative county transit system and further developing the city's place within the county.
In 2030, in addition to Lanier Technical College, there will be a university in the county offering both undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. The community will be 100 percent literate, according to the draft's "Big Ideas" section.
As part of the goal to educate and employ residents within the county, a group of local educational and government leaders will "develop a plan for recruiting, educating, training and retaining a future-oriented workforce" called the "Hiring Highway" which will be the state's "most comprehensive and innovative roadmap for developing and retaining a talented workforce," according to the draft.
The community's Lake Walk, along Lake Lanier, will have retail shops, housing and an amphitheater to host concerts and educational programs. The River Walks, along the Chattahoochee and Etowah rivers, will also provide a gathering place for the community, if the draft is executed.
Other ideas include annual arts festivals, drama festivals, greenways, or recreational trails, blueways, or recreational streams and an outdoor adventure center, which will offer white water rafting and the tallest climbing wall in the Southeast.
Ideas to attract out-of-town guests to the community's local fairgrounds include a permanent roller coaster, biking competitions, triathlons, minor league sports teams, gymnastics and cheerleading workshops and competitions and an outdoor arena large enough to host monster truck rallies, motocross shows, demolition derbies and tractor pulls.
Among action steps are developing town centers, including retail areas and gathering places, in communities like Ducktown, Coal Mountain and Castleberry-Bethelview.
Public-private initiatives are mentioned often for planning and implementing several projects, including the Lake Walk and River Walks.
Some projects listed, including an aquatic center, jail, parking deck and implementing business recruiting incentives, are already in development by public and private entities in Forsyth County.
"To us, substance trumps form every time. We want to have a great community we can all be proud of, and when the seeds were planted for projects is irrelevant as long as we reap the fruit at the end of the day," said Barrett. "The fact we're fortunate enough to have some of these things already in the works and under way just shows you what this community is really capable of, and it is very exciting."
The next step in the Envision 2030 process, which began in September 2006, is the Community Day, where city and county residents are invited to comment on the plan. Comments, both good and bad, will be taken into account in the final drafting of the plan, said Otis White, facilitator for the Envision 2030 process.
"We'll watch with great interest. I certainly do hope it causes a real outpouring of comments, and I do hope people will find a way of improving it. We will take their comments very seriously," he said.
White, who has assisted other area communities with similar visioning plans, said unlike several other communities, Forsyth County has an overwhelming number of "bricks and mortar" ideas.
"That is to say that when you look at the action steps, there are an awful lot of facilities that they recommend be built," he said. "I think that really speaks to how young Cumming-Forsyth County is. The citizens realize there is still a lot in this young county that needs to be constructed for this to be a full community."
Another observation White made addresses the "social infrastructure" called for in the report, referring to the number of organizations, clubs, groups and councils needed to implement and oversee changes.
A learning partners collaborative, an arts coalition, a sports coalition, a convention and visitors bureau and a downtown Cumming development coalition are among the organizations to be established under the plan.
Another group outlined in the draft will make the Cumming-Forsyth County vision unique from others, said White. The "Quality of Life Council" is outlined to be a group of representatives selected by a variety of public, private and civic organizations, tasked with setting the quality of life objectives on a regular basis, publishing a report comparing and tracking third party statistics on a regular basis and essentially assisting the community in reaching goals, among other things.
The proposed organization will convene Quality of Life Forums to discuss objectives and community performance, specifically how to increase progress and address poor performance.
The Community Day event is actually set for two days, to maximize participation. On June 7, the event will run from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on June 8, the event will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Both events are scheduled for the Cumming -Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce events facility, located on 212 Kelly Mill Road in Cumming. For more information, call (770) 887-6461 or visit www.envision2030.com. | | Related Link
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