Barbara Patton: Community input welcome for planning

New opportunities abound every day and another is coming your way this week. It is an opportunity to give your input into the future plan for Opelika’s downtown. Meetings are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesday, there will be an Open House at the former Miriam S. Brown School (1103 Glenn Street) from 5:30 to 7 p.m. where you can see the progress that has been made on the plan so far and make comments.

There will not be a formal presentation so you can come at any time that is convenient for you during that time frame.

Thursday, it’s back to city hall council chambers at 5:30 to hear a presentation on a draft of the development plan and make further comments on it.

The City of Opelika and Envision Opelika have partnered to plan for the future of Opelika’s downtown. Goodwyn Mills and Cawood have been hired to guide the process and they have an outstanding team assembled with Cathy Gerachis as the principal; Howard Blackson, the Charrette Coordinator; and Larry Watts, the senior planner. They also have architect Mike Hamrick, designer Jeff Slaton, planner Brandon Bias, landscape architect John Bricken, GIS coordinator Nathan Sills, transportation and logistics planner Kerri Yap, and engineer Tim Johnson on the team. Participating as the Feasibility Analyst and Retail Specialist is Suzanna Allaway.

So you can see that a great deal of talent and expertise has been brought together to participate in the development of the plan.

Apart from the public meetings mentioned above, the consultants will be meeting with government officials, community organizations, business and property owners, and other groups to develop the draft.

The team has already gathered a plethora of pertinent data and visited with city staff as well as a steering committee.

All of us know that much has been accomplished since those awnings first came down in downtown Opelika and the plans were made to begin a downtown revitalization process. Notice I didn’t say “project” but “process.” There have been lots of projects within the process, beginning with the renovation of the main structure of the Opelika Depot, and continuing with the design and construction of Court House Square and the initial streetscape on 8th and 9th Streets and Avenue A between the two streets, the Bill Roberts mini park on 9th Street, the renovation of the baggage room at the Depot, the design landscaping and construction of Railroad Park at the Depot, and the further construction of three streetscape phases.

Even today, another streetscape phase is under way, and I’m sure you’ve noticed the construction between 9th and 10th on South Railroad Avenue.

Please don’t miss this chance. Come and give your comments and ideas.

Barbara Patton is director of Envision Opelika and writes a column for the Opelika-Auburn News.