Envision 2030 Holds Its First Vision Meeting
Posted Wednesday, September 20, 2006
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Envision 2030 Holds Its First Vision Meeting
Citizens Describe How Cumming-Forsyth County Should Look, Work in the Future
Cumming, Ga. (Sept. 20, 2006) – Approximately 130 citizens spent two hours Tuesday night describing in detail how they would like Cumming-Forsyth County to look and work in the next 25 years. It was the first public meeting for Envision 2030, the year-long community visioning initiative, and organizers called it a “great start.”
Click HERE to See the full Video of the Event
“There was a lot of energy in that room, as citizens worked in small groups to describe how they’d like our community to turn out,” Envision 2030 Co-chair Brett Berto said. “I was impressed how hard they worked – and the number and quality of ideas they generated.”
Among the hundreds of ideas were practical, short-term improvements like “computerize the traffic signals” and “improve city-county cooperation,” but there were also some far-reaching ideas, like suggestions that Forsyth County start a university, begin countywide wireless Internet service, create a cultural and performing arts center and have a heliport with daily helicopter service to Atlanta and Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
“There were some ideas I would call ‘practical visionary’ ideas,” Berto said. “That is, they’re out in front of what we normally think about in Cumming-Forsyth County but challenge us to think bigger. I can’t wait to see what comes from our seven remaining meetings.”
In Tuesday night’s session, Envision facilitator Jon Abercrombie asked participants to work in groups of 10 or so to describe how Cumming-Forsyth County would “look and feel” if it were to be featured in a cover story by Time magazine in 2030 as “America’s best mid-size community.”
“Tell us what a reporter from Time magazine might write about this perfect community, what places in Cumming and Forsyth County he might describe and what the magazine might photograph,” Abercrombie asked the group. The small groups worked together for about 40 minutes, writing their ideas on large flip charts, then described some of their ideas to the larger group.
Later in the meeting, Abercrombie asked the small groups to list “community assets” they thought should be preserved, as Cumming-Forsyth County moves toward 2030, and things that are not available now but might be needed.
“By the end of the evening, we had hundreds of ideas and images on the flip charts,” Envision 2030 Co-chair Carter Barrett said.
The entire list of ideas will be included in a report that will be posted next week on the Envision 2030 web site, at www.envision2030.com. There are seven other community meetings planned by Envision 2030 this fall, including one next Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. at Riverwatch Middle School, 610 James Burgess Rd., Suwanee.
“All the ideas from all the meetings will be collected and catalogued, and we’ll use them in December in shaping our ‘common vision,’ the major themes that the citizens said they want to guide our community going forward,” Barrett said. “But we’ll also use them early next year, when we move to strategic planning. So don’t be surprised if some of the ideas talked about for the first time in this fall’s vision meetings become recommendations next spring.”
About Envision 2030
Envision 2030 is a year-long, citizen-led community planning initiative to envision – and plan for – Cumming-Forsyth County‘s development over the next 25 years.
It begins with eight vision meetings in fall 2006 and will continue as a strategic planning process in early 2007. At every stage, citizens will be invited to join Envision 2030 meetings and planning groups – and to critique its reports and work products. Every document will be available on the Envision 2030 web site, www.envision2030.com.
Envision 2030’s final report will be available in June 2007.
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