Austell accepting public input on new vision for downtown

Residents can go on the city’s website to make comments and take a feedback survey about the downtown plan through Sept. 10. The survey is available at https://tsw.mysocialpinpoint.com/downtown-austell-lci.

The draft plan is based on a months long study that began in December, when city officials started analyzing housing, businesses and attractions in a 600-acre area in and around downtown.

That resulted in what is known as a “livable centers initiative,” or LCI, plan. Such plans are part of a grant program sponsored by the Atlanta Regional Commission.

The program offers federal funding to entice local governments to re-envision their jurisdictions by focusing on vibrant, walkable communities that increase mobility and encouraging healthy lifestyles.

Among the short term goals included in the new plan is a concept to create a “Town Green” park area along Love Street that’s surrounded by a cluster of redeveloped retail buildings. The plan also includes a vision for a new civic center on the grounds of the Post Office along Veterans Memorial Highway.

More long-term goals include converting the Sweetwater Lumber and Land Company industrial site along Humphries Hill Road into a mixed-use development with houses, apartments, townhomes and retail shops. The city also proposed creating a Downtown Development Authority to spearhead the redevelopment plans and establishing a “quiet zone” on the railroads.

Austell first devised a $9.6 million plan in 2002 that proposed improvements to the city’s housing strategies, transit guidelines and pedestrian pathways. Many of the recommendations included in the current plan are updates to that original plan.