Decatur Budget Priorities: Community & Economic Development
Decatur Metro | July 29, 2009After the jump, you’ll find details on the top four budget priorities for Decatur’s Community & Economic Development Department (pages 10-15 of the Budget Narrative doc). Here’s a top level summary…
- Priority One: Complete the Update of the City’s Website.
- Priority Two: Partner with the Tourism Bureau and the Decatur Downtown Development Authority to target advertising and marketing to attract visitors, support programs to retain existing retail and restaurant businesses and maintain clean, attractive and inviting commercial districts
- Priority Three: Develop A Community Arts Master Plan.
- Priority Four: Purchase new, [small electric truck] for Parking Enforcement.
The Arts Master Plan description sounds especially intriguing. It specifically mentions the new, centrally located auditorium at DHS and Agnes Scott’s desire to “make certain” that in expanding and improving their own arts facilities, they incorporate the community’s arts needs and identify “possible opportunities for developing joint-use off-campus facilities”.
The mind tingles with anticipation to know what these potential “off-campus facilities” could be.
Priority One: Complete the Update of the City’s Website. We completed phase one of the website update making changes in drop down menus to provide easier access to frequently used information. Phase two utilizes an independent audit of the existing site to replace outdated structure, develop a more intuitive navigation of the site and fix problems with the existing search engine.
Priority Two: Partner with the Tourism Bureau and the Decatur Downtown Development Authority to target advertising and marketing to attract visitors, support programs to retain existing retail and restaurant businesses and maintain clean, attractive and inviting commercial districts. The new Tourism Bureau allows us to share advertising, landscaping and decorating costs between the CED Department, the Tourism Bureau and the Decatur Downtown Development Authority
Priority Three: Develop A Community Arts Master Plan. In recent years, a number of organizations, institutions and individuals have raised the issue of the need for expanded arts facilities within the City of Decatur. With the completion of the new performing arts facility at Decatur High School, the proposed redevelopment of the Decatur Recreation Center, the possibility of the redevelopment of the Beacon Hill complex and plans by Agnes Scott College to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the arts facilities, this is an appropriate time to undertake a comprehensive plan to coordinate all of these activities.
A comprehensive arts master plan would catalog existing facilities, determine current needs for additional arts facilities and identify the appropriate partners to file those needs. This effort would be similar to the Community Athletic Facilities Master Plan that was completed five years ago. This effort would bring together a partnership including the Agnes Scott College, the Decatur Arts Alliance, the City Schools of Decatur and local arts groups. We have received pledges of financial support for this effort as follows: Agnes Scott College $25,000; Decatur Downtown Development Authority $15,000, Decatur Business Association $5,000; Decatur Beer Festival $5,000; Decatur Arts Alliance $5,000. We are requesting $20,000 from the City of Decatur to allow us to issue a Request for Proposals and get this project underway. Agnes Scott received grant funding to complete a campus master plan in preparation for expanding and improving their campus arts facilities. They want to make certain that this campus effort is coordinated with a community‐wide assessment to assure that their plans incorporate community arts needs and identify possible opportunities for developing joint‐use facilities off of their campus.
Priority Four: Purchase new vehicle for Parking Enforcement. Over the past ten years, we have relied on recycled vehicles from the City’s inventory to provide equipment for parking meter coin collection, meter maintenance and to move supplies for the various festivals and special events between the warehouse and the event locatin. Recently we were notified that our old truck is beyond repair and no suitable vehicles exist in the remaining inventory. We are currently using an older city‐owned sedan but it is not reliable and does not provide the secure storage for equipment and coins. We included a lease purchase option for a small pickup truck in our last budget but found that the availability of an all‐electric vehicle option to meet our needs now exists. Therefore, we postponed our purchase to allow us to gather additional information and asked this item be moved to the next fiscal year. We propose to purchase a small electric truck with a utility box option through a five year lease program.
would bring together a partnership including the Agnes Scott College, the Decatur Arts Alliance, the City Schools of Decatur and local arts groups. We have received pledges of financial support for this effort as follows: Agnes Scott College $25,000; Decatur Downtown Development Authority $15,000, Decatur Business Association $5,000; Decatur Beer Festival $5,000; Decatur Arts Alliance $5,000. We are requesting $20,000 from the City of Decatur to allow us to issue a Request for Proposals and get this project underway. Agnes Scott received grant funding to complete a campus master plan in preparation for expanding and improving their campus ats facilities. They want to make certain that this campus effort is coordinated with a community‐wide assessment to assure that their plans incorporate community arts
Narrative eeds and identify possible opportunities for developing joint‐use facilities off of their campus.
Latest from Decaturish
I wanted to make a comment regarding item 2 with the Tourism Bureau and the Decatur Downtown Development Authority. I’ve always thought that Decatur could make for a great “destination” as the downtown is so walkable and almost European. ONE MAJOR ISSUE – There are no good hotels. Let’s face it, the Holiday Inn is an overpriced dump. If Decatur had a couple quality boutique or even chain (e.g. Hilton Garden Inn) hotels downtown, it would be extremely beneficial.
I would much rather have that than more apartments or condos if for no other reason than we don’t have anything like that. But let’s not call the Decatur Holiday Inn a DUMP. I had my first real job there in decade and century far, far away, and that makes me sad
I agree, the Holiday Inn isn’t that bad. I had family stay there while some work was done at my house a couple of years ago, and they said it was fine… Versus other Holiday Inn’s the price was a bit on the higher side, but hey, that’s what happens when you’re about the only option in the town.
If you want to think Dump, cast your mind back to the delighful Relax Inn!
Isn’t the Holiday Inn about to be renovated? I remember hearing that somewhere.
Yes, the Holiday Inn is renovating rooms and public areas. In order to retain the Holiday Inn flag, they are required to make regular upgrades. We have found their general manager Lisa Castagna to be very easy to work with and quick to respond to issues and concerns.
I would like to point out that the re-development around the office building on Ponce was intended to have a boutique hotel that you speak of included. However, the NIMBYs shot it down.
Based on when the boutique hotel idea was floated by the 315 developer, I think most people agree with you UTE…though some aren’t in a position to call the Holiday Inn an “overpriced dump.”
My general not-so-useful addition to that conversation is to lament the loss of the Candler Hotel, which was torn down for One TownCenter. It’s an interesting topic to bring up, because everyone has a different story as to why it wasn’t saved (the rooms couldn’t be expanded for condos, it was on the verge of collapse, etc).
Anyway, a boutique hotel in Decatur like The Glenn downtown would be awesome. Not sure anyone would argue with ya.
Something like the Glenn would be awesome. Imagine a rooftop bar over Decatur.
A rooftop bar over Decatur– that’d be fabulous! I’d certainly go.
Sycamore house on Sycamore Street is the best place to stay in Decatur, but it is for sale
I hope someone buys it and keeps it as a B&B. My mohter stays there annually and loves it, one of the best pools in Decatur for sure.
It’s a gorgeous house, but it needs a lot of little things done to it, in addition to a not-so-little thing: a new kitchen (I’ve developed a bad habit of cruising the real estate websites looking at the prices on the listed properties here in the City). I’m sure the people who run it are lovely, but I can’t imagine that they’ll get the $1.2M they’re asking for it b/c few people are opening businesses during this economy. Sadly, it’ll probably be for sale for quite some time.
I wonder if anything will happen to the building near Eddie’s Attic (the one that’s had the sign up for years about bringing residential back to the square). That would seem a great location for a small boutique hotel, if ever they abandon the bringing residential back to the square idea?
It would certainly be a great location for a boutique hotel but that site is so small I don’t see how we could fit something in that space. Good idea though! If I was visiting Decatur, I would love to stay in a small hotel adjacent to the square.
I am pretty sure it was demolished because there was no way to install modern HVAC, without a major expense to the developer. Our city government should have been more involved in trying to save it, but that was not the attitude at City Hall in that not so long ago era. This was pre Town Center Plan. I was involved as an advocate for historic preservation in trying to save the hotel, and not demolish most of downtown through eminent domain power. We lost that battle, but “we won the war” and “look at us now”!
Totally agree Rick. I often wonder about all of the cool things we could have done with the Candler Hotel if we had it. The 60s and 70s weren’t kind to historic commercial districts!
Sorry, just the history geek in me…
Wasn’t the Candler Hotel torn down in the 80s to make way for One TownCenter? And then wouldn’t that have been post-Town Center Plan?
actually you are right — the Candler Hotel was torn down in 1983 to make way for the first Town Center building. My 60s and 70s comment was in reference to all of the buildings that were lost on the western side of the square with urban renewal. With more creative approaches to renovation now the norm, I’m certain that whatever the limitations were that seemed so impossible to solve in the early 80s could now be dealt with to allow it to be retrofitted for a new use . . . like a boutique hotel?
A boutique hotel is on the top of our list of “wants and what ifs” and we agree that Decatur has untapped potential as a destination for small to medium size conferences and as an alternative hotel option for folks attending one of the larger conventions in downtown Atlanta. There has been some interest in this concept. The tourism bureau allows us more flexibility to pursue this market.
We are very excitied about the cultural arts master plan. We have limited land and limited financial resources to build large single purpose facilities that stand empty much of the time. The plan will involve the community and a number of community stakeholders in conducting an inventory of existing programs and facilities, identifying program and facility needs and opportunities to create partnerships to expand or improve existing facilities and if necessary figure out how to bring groups together to develop additional facilities. Agnes Scott College is embarking on a similar process for their on-campus facilities and will be part of this larger community discussion so the timing is perfect. They received foundation funding to develop their study and included a contribution to our community wide planning effort in their budget request. In fact, the foundation they are working with really liked the plan to coordinate their campus planning with a broader community discussion. While our department will be leading this master planning effort, our department is funding 25% of the master plan cost. The Decatur Downtown Development Authority is contributing 25%, Agnes Scott College is providing 30% and the remaining 20% is being covered by contributions from the Decatur Arts Alliance, the Decatur Business Association and a grant from the Decatur Beer Festival.
Lyn, I’ve been wondering about potential future uses for the DHS auditorium for a while. Are there any thoughts yet about that or is it still to early? Seems like a good venue for things like the mayor’s State of the City or a heavily attended commission mtg.
City Schools of Decatur will be an important stakeholder in the cultural arts master planning effort. Their facility certainly represents a valuable community asset that we hope can be available for arts programming. The beauty of our compact community is that most of our public facilities are within walking distance of each other — Agnes Scott, the High School, the Decatur Recreation Center (renovated version of course).
Agnes Scott really needs to deal with the falling apart dorms & the mold problem in Inman before it embarks on any other building project to benefit the community,
Signed,
Irritated Alumnae
Maybe so. But their own arts master plan is grant-funded, as stated above.