Avondale Estates has two openings on its Downtown Development Authority with the recent resignations of Parke Kallenberg and Wade Thompson. DDA Chair Sam Collier said that for both men their vocations made it difficult to attend meetings.
Collier said the openings are for one city business owner and one resident. He hopes to name the new members by July when the DDA begins its strategic planning.
Avondale’s DDA has changed dramatically over the past 18 months. It has been completely reconfigured and now gets funded by the city through an intergovernmental agreement. This invests the DDA with power to buy property, take out a bond, develop property and market the city’s downtown.
In April the DDA hired its first employee, David Burt, a part-time economy development consultant. The job that may eventually become full time.
The DDA’s most ambitious project to date is creating a process map for arriving at a definitive development plan regarding the four city-owned acres on North Avondale Road. Collier said that he hopes by September to have an actual design to take to developers along with the potential costs.
