More than 40 people met Tuesday in the Southeast Elementary cafeteria on Crane Street to work on ideas for revitalizing a part of East Rome.
The meeting is part of an ongoing effort to collect and shape residents’ wishes for the area.
Click to read a previous report about East Rome revitalization.
“Tonight is about building a vision, so get your thinking caps on and think big about what you’d like to see here,” Stan Harvey, a planner with lead project consultant Urban Collage, told the group.
The residents gathered at lunch tables with facilitators for three exercises on maps of the area that is anchored by Maple Avenue and bounded by the Norfolk Southern rail line, Second Avenue, U.S. 27 and U.S. 411. Another table consisted of a group of local developers, engineers and architects doing the same exercises.
First, the groups color-coded sections of the proposed revitalization, coloring in available areas as ideal for residential, commercial, open space and so forth. They next placed pictures of streetscapes and retail development onto the maps, and finally, on a second map, placed children’s building blocks to indicate clusters of potential neighborhood use.
The groups were prompted by questions like “Where on Maple (Avenue) could you see commercial?” They were also asked to point needed infrastructure improvements.
The project centers on the demolition and replacement of the Altoview Terrace public housing units and is contingent on the Northwest Georgia Housing Authority’s receiving a Hope VI revitalization grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
An initial master plan will be made public Thursday. The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. at Southeast Elementary, 1400 Crane St.
