Last year, the City of Thomasville invited the community to take part in the comprehensive planning initiative, Thomasville: Blueprint 2028, a process to help develop a guiding document to direct capital improvements, evaluate development projects, guide public policy, and ensure that Thomasville is the city its residents want it to be. This conversation will continue on February 27th with “Let’s Discuss Strong Towns.” According to Brian Herrmann, City Planner, the guest speaker for this topic is someone very knowledgeable about what it takes to make a community financially strong and resilient.
“We are very pleased to welcome Charles Marohn to Thomasville to help lead this conversation,” said Herrmann. “Chuck founded the Strong Towns movement, which has at its mission a desire to support a model of development that allows America’s cities, towns and neighborhoods to find a way to become prosperous from within. This means that together, strong citizens work with local government to collaborate and find solutions to issues that will help us grow a healthy local community.”
Herrmann said that developing a strong, local community hinges on putting neighborhoods first and encouraging economic growth that stems from job creation and prosperous local business. “According to the Strong Towns approach, developing long term prosperity hinges on how we use our resources and what kind of incremental changes we can make that will ultimately give us the community where people want to live, raise their families and grow their businesses.”
“Let’s Discuss Strong Towns” will focus on a ‘Neighborhoods First’ approach that shows how a community can grow stronger by making small, incremental investments over time. “What we find is that smart planning and small changes over time can make more of an impact at times than larger, transformative projects,” said Herrmann. “We are very fortunate to have someone as respected as Chuck Marohn come and help us learn what it takes to become a Strong Town.”
While the presentation will focus on the Strong Towns approach of putting neighborhoods first, it does not promise one answer to fix all problems facing America’s cities, towns and neighborhoods. Instead, the Strong Towns movement suggests a model that encourages partnership between local government and strong citizens, working together to find solutions. “Strong citizens are created when good people take an interest in their community and join the conversations that are happening locally to help plan for Thomasville’s future,” said Herrmann. “That is exactly the kind of momentum that has been created through our outreach efforts related to the Thomasville: Blueprint 2028 Comprehensive Plan.”
During the fall of 2017, more than 600 members of the community participated in a series of events that were designed to engage citizens for feedback that will eventually be incorporated into the final comprehensive plan. “We are working with Dover, Kohl and Partners, who have spent many hours visiting our community and listening to the feedback from our citizens,” said Herrmann. “They’ve taken all of the information they’ve gathered back and are now crafting the draft comprehensive plan. This plan will be shared with our community in the spring when we will host additional opportunities to participate in the comprehensive planning process.”
“Let’s Discuss Strong Towns” will be held on Tuesday, February 27th from 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm in the Flipper Room of the Thomas County Library. For more information, please contact Herrmann at 227-4118. For more information about the Strong Towns movement, visit www.strongtowns.org.