Visionary Cities

Celebrating their Heritage: Fundación Adelante Guatemala members attend the 2022 annual festival in Chamblee, photo contributed.

The Oxford dictionary defines the word visionary as “thinking about or planning the future with imagination or wisdom.” So it makes sense that to be considered a visionary city, the nominated region would have community leaders who are intelligent, thoughtful and creative, consistently looking for ways to make their community a better place to live and work, for residents and future generations. These leaders would also be adept at collaboration, not just within their own cities, but also in their interactions with county, state and federal entities.

This is the fifth time the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) and Georgia Trend have teamed up to honor nine communities with Visionary Cities Awards for projects that create positive change through effective civic engagement and teamwork. These projects include improving healthcare, boosting tourism, repurposing old buildings, modernizing roads, fighting crime, creating a better sense of community and more.

“As we celebrate the remarkable achievements of these nine cities, it’s evident that leadership is a common ingredient to accomplish forward-thinking initiatives and community-driven projects that enhance the quality of life for city residents,” says GMA CEO and Executive Director Larry Hanson. “The dedication of these cities to creating successful and vibrant communities also serves as an example for other cities striving for visionary transformation. GMA is proud to again partner with Georgia Trend magazine to acknowledge their contributions in shaping a brighter future for all Georgians.”

The Visionary Cities are grouped by population: small (fewer than 4,999), medium (5,000 to 24,999) and large (more than 25,000). We applaud these communities for their hard work and accomplishments and hope their projects will continue to enhance the lives of residents and visitors alike. – Kathleen Conway

Extending a Hand

By Betty Darby

Chamblee

Enhancing the Community: A student at Chamblee Middle School’s Bulldog Color Run, which raised money for school programs and local food pantries, photo contributed.

Charities and Nonprofits: Fundación Adelante Guatemala supports Guatemalans in Chamblee through social, economic and environmental development, above top, and participants in the Big Peach Sizzler raise money for Cystic Fibrosis, above, bottom.

Chamblee is a rapidly growing city in DeKalb County and an extremely diverse one, with Buford Highway, home to hundreds of international restaurants and shopping plazas, running through it. And it is always on the lookout for innovative ways of doing things. Among the latest is a collaborative program designed to maximize the impact of nonprofits. Through the Nonprofit Partnership Program, charities and nonprofits can apply for sponsorships of $5,000 to $10,000 to support their Chamblee-based events and programs. Community leaders say the initiative helps increase the nonprofits’ exposure and generate business.

“The Nonprofit Partnership Program began as an idea during COVID to provide financial support to the organizations that are serving the Chamblee community. The program has grown to include more than funding opportunities; it also includes tools to assist in the vitality of our organizations and professional development of their staff,” says Chamblee Mayor Brian Mock.

“Nonprofits and local municipalities often have shared goals and missions, to serve the community. The Nonprofit Partnership Program creates a collaboration between the two entities to work together to enhance the Chamblee community,” says Brittney Lindsay, the city’s community engagement director.

With the use of roundtable discussions, lunch-and-learn sessions, a grant program and access to shared resources, the program furthers the work of these groups in areas that coincide with the city council’s priorities including addressing at-risk or underserved communities, cultural heritage education, environmental conservation and remediation, and providing housing assistance.

Eight nonprofits stepped forward to participate in 2021. Roughly 2.5 years later, the program now has 23 participating organizations that range from service sororities like Alpha Kappa Alpha, advocacy groups like Fundación Adelante Guatemala, foundations supporting specific schools in Chamblee and even the Chamblee First United Methodist Church.

Brittney Lindsey, Chamblee’s community engagement director, photo contributed.

Chamblee Mayor Brian Mock, photo contributed.

It has a city-funded $100,000 annual budget. Lindsay says 90% of that goes into the grant program. Available grants are $5,000 and $10,000. The remainder of the budget goes for operational costs, including a volunteer recruitment website that the city provides to participants.

Macon-Bibb County

Macon Violence Prevention tackled violent crime by tapping into community input through meetings and forums, leading to ideas ranging from mental health services delivered in neighborhoods to teaching youngsters to play chess.

“Chess in the Community is teaching at-risk youth to play chess. We brought a group together that had probably never played chess in their lives, getting youth involved in ways that they can use their minds,” says Macon Mayor Lester Miller. “You can use chess for a lot of things – setting goals, thinking about moves before you make them.”

Chess is a small part of a big program, Macon Violence Prevention, or MVP. Miller says he identified violent crime as the public’s top concern, so the city set about talking with community groups and districts in order to design new programs that had community buy-in from the start. The result is MVP.

The program began with a series of community forums attended by more than 1,100 people. That included a forum in each of the nine commission districts, one for faith leaders, one for youth, one for victims of violent crimes and their families, one for downtown residents and businesses owners, and one for victims of domestic violence. In addition to attendance at the forums, more than 700 residents completed online surveys.

MVP’s goal was to find strategies that worked, tailored specifically for a given neighborhood, using collaborations among elected officials, law enforcement, community leaders and more. The idea was to identify promising proposals and fund them, then measure the result.

Miller says MVP was interested in evidence-based and innovative programs, rather than just funding organizations that were better at writing grant proposals. The MVP leadership team took the feedback and grouped it into 18 specific strategies. The result was a broad spectrum of proposals ranging from fighting blight, advancing literacy, supporting mental health services, free camps for kids on days when school is not in session and more.

Critical Thinking: Chess and Community aims to expose students to new ways of thinking and being which ultimately helps curb violence in the area.

The money came from Macon’s general fund, including an earmarked $700,000 from school zone speeding tickets, along with $8 million (and counting) in federal American Rescue Plan funding, according to Miller.

Crimefighting programs can take years before their effectiveness is known, but early results for MVP are encouraging. “We’re years ahead of where we thought we would be at this time,” Miller says. “When you get people involved as part of the solution, it creates buy-in.”

Statesboro

When the city of Statesboro took stock of its neighborhoods, it found that the children growing up in lower socioeconomic conditions were essentially living in “resource deserts” – that is, not enough food and clothing, literacy problems, shortage of healthcare, lack of financial literacy and not enough positive relationships. Five struggling neighborhoods were designated “villages,” and the Village Builders Initiative was launched to address those struggles.

A key resource for the initiative has been the 55-member Statesboro Youth Council, which empowers youth and participates in municipal government by advocating for youth programs. This group helps shape the Family Fun Resource Days, which are a major part of the program. Each of the designated villages gets at least one Resource Day a year, with follow-up events by community partners.

At these events, residents of the neighborhood receive hot meals and are able to access a variety of resources – medical appointments, food giveaways, free books, workshops and other goods and services – to help address the unmet community needs. The program’s coordinator says she measures success through surveying vendors and participants.

Village Builders: People attend Family Fun Resource Day at Statesboro STEAM Academy.

Families have access to a variety of resources, including food, books, workshops and other goods and services, photos contributed.

Statesboro Mayor Jonathan M. McCollar says Resource Days have had an immediate impact, but that he believes the longest-lasting impact will come from the initiative’s mentoring program. Mentors are asked to commit one to two hours a week to share their expertise and knowledge and build meaningful connections with kids in the program.

The city funds the initiative’s budget of $150,000, which includes the salary of a coordinator, and turns to partnerships for other resources.

“Village Builders have received a lot of support from the community,” he says. “We have seen nonprofit partners like the Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA, East Georgia Healthcare and many other organizations step up and do their part for the youth in the city.” Additional help comes from the private sector, including Ajin Georgia, a Korean-based auto body parts manufacturer now building a facility in Bulloch County, and Aspen Aerogels, which is now constructing a plant in Bulloch that makes insulation material for electric vehicles.

Collaboration and Connection

By Brian A. Lee

Fayetteville

Downtown Vibrancy: People gather at the Fayetteville City Center Park, photo contributed.

To create a downtown that people love, first you need to know what people want. To that end, the city of Fayetteville put a substantial focus on outreach as it sought input on spending about $27 million on City Hall and City Center Park, including well-advertised surveys, charrettes and town hall meetings over several years.

“The whole point of the [redevelopment] project was to bring Fayetteville together, so genuine collaboration was central to our planning the whole time,” says City Manager Ray Gibson. “We were careful to include people from all parts of the community and from all economic strata, from business leaders to even children and people who don’t live in the city but consider it their ‘hometown.’ In some neighborhoods, we went door-to-door to ensure people were aware of opportunities to have their voices heard.”

Residents had long desired more vibrancy and a sense of place in their downtown, with high-quality restaurants, entertainment venues, parks and other community gathering spaces. The new eight-acre City Center Park, with picnic pavilions, a playground, a splash pad, a dog park, walking paths and a large activity space called the Great Lawn, provides those spaces.

The push for a downtown gathering space fused with a more recent need to expand city offices. The 34,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art city hall keeps with the collaboration theme, including seven conference rooms and huddle areas, four open workstations and a large balcony overlooking City Center Park: “Open spaces make our workspaces more approachable, and there is a much greater sense of teamwork in our new city hall,” Gibson adds.

Genuine Collaboration: The new Fayetteville City Hall includes seven conference rooms, four workstations and a view of the park, photo contributed.

The project was designed by Goodwyn Mills Cawood and built by New South Construction. Other collaborators include Roundtown, a company which helps revitalize old buildings. It aided in transforming the former Fayetteville City Hall into 240 Glynn Street, which includes a cafe, charcuterie concept, wine bar, pottery studio, local-curated market, and community and event space. In addition, Walton Communities is adding 270 apartments and retail offerings, and Line Creek Brewing’s repurpose of the city’s old bus barn creates even more prime gathering space at the edge of the park.

Villa Rica

Leveraging present resources with an eye toward greater benefits in the future is a sound economic development playbook. Villa Rica has taken that to an award-winning level with its Transportation Reunification Program (TRP). With keen vision, persistence and strong partnership, the city is remaking its roadways to multidimensional effect – greater access, efficiency and environmental resiliency – with a huge infrastructure project.

“With roughly 3,500 new housing units currently under construction, we needed to anticipate and address Villa Rica’s transportation needs,” says City Manager Tom Barber. “Addressing critically absent street networks, completing the network of sidewalks throughout the city, and refurbishing the existing golf cart paths and expanding the network are all designed to encourage connectivity and multimodal mobility within the city.”

The Highway 61 bypass will move freight vehicles out of the downtown core and provide alternative and more direct access to I-20. The realignment of Punkintown Road will create a northern loop allowing people to commute more safely from north Carroll and south Paulding counties to I-20. And the “critically important” Mirror Lake Connector will link that community of 1,300-plus homes and the third of the city’s population that lives in Douglas County with downtown Villa Rica.

Chris Montesinos, the former special projects director for Villa Rica who captained the TRP, notes that a unique aspect of the TRP is its combination of partnerships and funding mechanisms. The Highway 61 Bypass is a collaboration between the city and the Georgia Department of Transportation. The Punkintown Road realignment will rely on a public-private partnership and federal infrastructure grant funds. And the Mirror Lake Connector includes Department of Community Affairs funding and construction by Fuqua Development, which is building the portion of the roadway running through its mixed-use development, which will include townhomes, apartments, a grocery store, restaurants and retail.

The road to greater connectivity and quality of life in Villa Rica is becoming much smoother. According to city projections, the Transportation Reunification Program will benefit nearly 41.4 million persons annually.

Covington

Community Engagement: Covington Cinco de Mayo concert, featuring Mariachi de Atlanta, photo contributed.

Known as “The Hollywood of the South,” Covington draws thousands of tourists interested in the more than 100 films and television shows shot there. Located 30 minutes east of Atlanta, the city has also enjoyed an influx of many businesses and new industries. In response to that growth, city leaders developed a comprehensive plan that prioritized expanded community engagement, including diversity and inclusion. The result: an 81% year-over-year increase in the number of community events hosted.

“Newton County is a majority-minority area according to census demographic data, so it was important to the team that minority communities within Covington feel welcomed and included in event programming,” says Bailey Dickinson, special projects coordinator for the city of Covington. “Formed out of that desire to promote community engagement and also continue to revive the town square, the community development department took this goal as a challenge and greatly exceeded expectations.”

Covington’s comprehensive plan says the area is seeking to “encourage citizen participation in all government activities, events and initiatives” and “celebrate the entire community by embracing diversity and inclusion.” To foster that effort, Covington’s community development department, recently rebranded as the Office of Downtown & Tourism Development, nearly doubled its event total from 43 in 2022 to 78 in 2023, including a Cinco De Mayo celebration, a Juneteenth parade and a Black History Month special exhibit by local students entitled “I Am Black History.” In addition, free books from diverse authors were distributed at the weekly Farmers Market thanks to a Literacy for Georgia grant from the Georgia Department of Education.

Partners in the initiative are Newton County, the chamber of commerce, Newton Arts Association, the local YMCA, the Newton Ministers Union, Newton Trails, the Newton County Historical Committee on Black Heritage Preservation and the Washington Street Community Center.

“Whether it is a small event of 10 people or a Fourth of July celebration with hundreds of thousands of people, we are proud that there is a place for everyone in our community,” Dickinson adds.

Implementing Positive Change

by Stephanie Kalina-Metzger

Hawkinsville

A healthy, vibrant community benefits everyone in it. So in 2016, when Taylor Regional Hospital in Hawkinsville performed its mandated triennial needs assessment and found African American men were underserved in both preventive and follow-up healthcare needs, city leaders were concerned.

Promoting Health: University of Georgia Professor Henry Young, wearing tie, works with the Pulaski County Archway Partnership in Hawkinsville, on creating “Fishers of Men” telehealth hubs at local churches, above, and using technology at one of the church-based hubs, below

“Chronic health conditions like diabetes and heart disease can be managed with proper care, but instead patients were ending up in the hospital. Many didn’t have to the ability to seek specialized care and by the time they did, it was often too late,” says Hawkinsville City Commissioner Shelly Berryhill. “We asked if the University of Georgia could help and they agreed, saving the hospital a lot of money,” he says.

The University of Georgia’s (UGA) Archway Partnership, which connects communities in need with UGA resources, provided valuable support. In this case, Archway helped launch Fishers of Men, a telehealth initiative that got its name from a well-known Bible verse. Its goal: to create telehealth hubs at participating churches – because in this part of Georgia, many people either attend church or know someone who does.

Funded in 2020 with a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant of just under $1 million, the effort united county and school officials, churches, private industry and secondary education officials around a goal to provide health solutions for the city of 3,280, especially helping the aforementioned underserved Black men. These hubs have widescreen TVs, computers, internet capabilities, and various other devices that people may not have access to at home. (Lack of internet coverage is not uncommon in rural areas like this.) Through telehealth appointments, the patients now have access to specialists throughout the state.

Today about 27 churches are participating in the program, providing primary care services to anyone who needs them. “They can set up appointments and undergo full telehealth exams right there at the church,” Berryhill says, adding that he sees a bright future for the initiative. Hundreds are already being assisted and as word grows and the initiative spreads to other churches and communities, the results may be life-changing for thousands.

“As word gets out, we hope that more people will learn about the program and understand that it can easily be replicated,” he says.

Hiawassee

If someone in Hiawassee tells you to take a hike, it might just be a good idea. After all, the town with a population of 1,029 is an official Appalachian Trail Community. But it confronted an ongoing problem affecting area businesses in January through April: a lack of customers. “This affected the grocery store, the outfitter, pharmacies, coffee shops and restaurants,” says Hiawassee Mayor Liz Ordiales.

As a solution, the city worked with businesses, community groups, churches, volunteers, city employees, county representatives, the Downtown Development Authority and the Appalachian Trail (AT) Conservancy to establish the AT project known as “Hikeawassee.” Its goal: to better promote the city as a trail-friendly town and attract visitors from February through April, when large groups of northbound hikers start their 2,000-mile trek to make it to Maine before the winter begins.

Ordiales says a bus pickup and return at two trailheads (Unicoi and Dicks Creek Gap) “was identified as the biggest need for hikers.” Providing that shuttle was a success; in a span of nine weeks, she says the city had transported 1,507 hikers.

Attracting Tourism: Hikeawasee shuttle transported visiting hikers to two nearby trailheads, photo contributed.

To involve the entire community in the initiative, organizers enlisted churches to provide food for hikers during weekly cookouts. “We had Mayor Mondays with business participation and sponsorships,” says Ordiales, adding that the civic organizations also got involved making donations and supporting marketing efforts in the form of stickers, banners and town signage. “Last year, which was our inaugural year, we had citizens of all ages coming to the square to meet and speak with the hikers, who came from all walks of life,” said Ordiales.

Mayor Mondays: Hiawassee Mayor Liz Ordiales (front, center) with Appalachian trail hikers, photo contributed.

Ordiales expects the initiative to have long-term value in the tourism sector. “First-time visitors were very pleased and appreciative and vowed to return with their families in the future,” she says.

Madison

Known for its antebellum architecture and charming downtown, Madison regularly makes “best places to live” lists. But not every community is thriving. Recognizing nearly a century of what officials deem “shortfalls” in Madison’s Canaan neighborhood, the city aimed to revitalize this neglected area comprised mostly of single-family residences occupied by working-class African Americans. In order to do this, city leaders decided to go straight to the residents and really listen to what they had to say.

With a series of partners, the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) set forth a 20-year vision to combat food insecurity and substandard infrastructure and address the need for affordable housing and more. The initiative began in 2011 and will continue for another decade.

Works in Progress: Signs for the Gilmore House, top left, the Martin Tot Lot, top right, and Tanyard Branch, a project to improve water quality, above, photos contributed.

After the DDA gave a presentation on the area it wanted to redevelop, city officials began holding quarterly meetings, first at an AME church and later in a community room, where the public could air their concerns. During one of those meetings, residents reported stormwater issues.

“This wasn’t even on our radar,” says Monica Callahan, planning and development director for the city of Madison. The city used $500,000 in community development block grants and $175,000 in Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax funds to install stormwater systems in the area and remediate flooding of streets, yards and some homes.

Residents also played an important part in determining what would happen to a defunct school building in the neighborhood. They were invited to meetings to discuss issues of importance to them via newspaper ads, website posts, door hangers and flyers posted at local churches. As a result of their input, “we are now in negotiations for a day care at the property,” says Callahan.

At present, the former Morgan County Middle School, which was renamed The Pearl Burney Complex, houses Georgia Military College classes, a Boys & Girls Club and a food pantry. Plans are also afoot for a future Pearl-Burney Alumni Museum, honoring the work of African American schools during segregation.

Another successful project resulted in a new Tot Lot, a small park designed for children 6 years and younger. The property was acquired through Habitat for Humanity and was funded by donations, the GCC and the local Housing Opportunity Commission (HOC). The Tot Lot is now viewed as a pilot for the rest of the city.

Adaptive Reuse: The historic Pearl Burney Complex houses Georgia Military College classes, a Boys & Girls Club and a food pantry, photo contributed.

After listening to residents, the DDA negotiated a deal to purchase a 4,000-square-foot building that belonged to the Gilmore family, promising it would be used for the community’s benefit. The Gilmore House includes a large room that can be rented for gatherings, a commercial kitchen leased by a start-up catering company, three affordable apartments and the R&B Café, which Callahan describes as a “meat and three” and “Southern fare at its finest.”

Callahan says she’s excited for what the next decade will bring for the Canaan neighborhood. “It’s been about discipline, fortitude and implementation because many communities develop plans that end up on a shelf. I think this is evidence of what can happen when you have an aspirational plan – you listen to the
community and you implement it,” she says.