More than 100 residents attended two open house sessions Thursday to get their first impression of a major project poised to transform Smyrna’s downtown.
A noticeable no-show was Smyrna Mayor Derek Norton, who’s spearheaded the $6.7 million redevelopment effort despite objections from residents that have criticized the overall concept.
Norton said he chose to stay away to avoid influencing the public’s perception.
“Me being there, I don’t want to sway anybody’s opinion,” he said during a phone interview Friday. “I’d rather them make their observations and comments on their own, and then we evaluate those to put together a plan that goes with what the public wants.”
About 50 people attended Thursday night’s input session at Brawner Hall to take stock of two potential blueprints for the new downtown.
The reviews were mixed. While some residents were happy about the prospect of a reboot, others had reservations.
John Dollarhide, a resident, said the large fountain at Centennial Park becomes an eye sore when it isn’t used in the winter. Plans call for the large fountain to be removed and replaced with smaller fountains.
“I like some of the things they’re taking, I feel like, from the Battery (Atlanta),” Dollarhide said. “The fountains that people can run through or walk through, I think those are great.”
Longtime resident Mark Bauer worried about traffic along King Street, which will be extended several blocks north to Powder Springs Street. He called both proposals “terrible” and fumed that none of the council members who supported the idea were in the building.
“I’m disappointed that there’s no city officials here,” he said. “The mayor’s not here. This is his pet project, and he’s not here. It’s only the design team, an independent company.”
Morgan Davis, who lives within walking distance of Centennial Park, felt the upgrades will attract more visitors to Smyrna’s downtown.
“I think Smyrna Market Village has just gotten busier and busier so hopefully it’ll give some more spread out options,” she said.
A design team from Pond & Company, a Peachtree Corners architect, will incorporate the public feedback into a final version of the blueprint that will be presented to the city’s Downtown Redesign Detail Task Force on Oct. 5 for approval.
City officials say the final version of the plan will likely be a hybrid of the two design proposals.
The task force is made up of the five council members who voted for the redesign concept along with three citizens with expertise in landscape architecture, building and marketing. They’ve drilled down on landscaping and tree placement, and opted for features like large sculpted letters in front of the Smyrna Public Library that spell out Smyrna. Andrew Kohr, Pond & Company’s director of landscape architecture, said residents suggested different locations for the Smyrna sculpture and adding more wheelchair accessibility into the plans.
Council members could take a final vote on the project as soon as Oct. 18.
Charles “Corky” Welch and Susan Wilkinson, the two City Council members that voted against the design concept in June, attended Thursday night’s open house.
Welch, a civil engineer with nearly 40 years of architecture experience, has criticized Norton for not appointing him to the downtown redesign task force. The mayor insists he didn’t want people on the task force who weren’t supportive of the overall concept.
After looking at the blueprints, Welch estimated it would cost about $9 million to implement the proposed features and said he still didn’t support the project.
“I think there’s too many things about it that disrupt traffic,” he said. “I think we should go into the roundabout and make any necessary improvements to repair the bricks and pavers, and possibly replace landscaping within the roundabout to something that’s more up to date.”
A group of residents who’ve opposed the city’s redevelopment plan all summer formally launched Smart Smyrna earlier this month. The ad hoc opposition group has circulated a petition that’s collected nearly 300 signatures. They held a two-day meeting where members came up with alternate designs for the downtown reshaping.
Norton described Smart Smyrna as a “overwhelming minority” and estimated that 80 to 90% of the feedback has been positive about a “fresh start” for downtown.
Shaun Martin, a member of Smart Smyrna’s leadership team, said the group hopes to mount enough public pressure to convince city leaders to do more due diligence before finalizing its plan.
“They haven’t investigated it, they haven’t analyzed the outcomes, and they haven’t presented something to the community that actually works,” Martin said.
A third open house will be held from 4-7 p.m. at the Smyrna Community Center, 200 Village Green Cir SE. Residents can submit their opinions online at smyrnagreenspace.konveio.com.
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