We are excited to announce that Uptown Columbus, Inc. has been selected as a Semi-Finalist for the 2017 Great American Main Street Award.  The Great American Main Street Award (GAMSA) recognizes accredited Main Street Programs throughout the country whose local initiatives in preservation and revitalization have helped to transform their community’s historic district.

Located on the banks of the Chattahoochee River in Columbus, Georgia, Uptown Columbus includes both the central business district and the riverfront. In addition to beautiful historic architecture, abundant public art, a vibrant weekly market, and many shopping, dining, fitness, and entertainment options, Uptown Columbus boasts an urban whitewater rafting course!

While Uptown Columbus, Inc. has served as downtown Columbus’ premier revitalization organization since 1983, they became an official designated Georgia Main Street community in 2009.  Since then, they have seen over $74 million in capital investments along with the completion of 59 rehab projects and have increased downtown housing by 29%. Please join us in congratulating Uptown Columbus, Inc. on being named a 2017 GAMSA Semi-Finalist.

Washington (May 23, 2016) – The National Main Street Center, Inc. announced today that Dahlonega, Georgia has been chosen as a 2016 Great American Main Street Award® (GAMSA) winner. The City of Dahlonega and the Dahlonega Main Street program were recognized at the 2016 Main Street Now Conference held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

With a charming and walkable downtown, first-rate restaurants, and unique shops featuring the best of Southern Appalachian hospitality, downtown Dahlonega is a top destination in the Southeastern United States. Located just 65 miles north of Atlanta and the site of the first U.S. Gold Rush, more than a million visitors travel to Dahlonega (pop. 6,000) every year. With the Main Street approach as its guide, Dahlonega Main Street uses a combination of tools, including preservation grants, design guidelines and promotion strategies to preserve downtown Dahlonega’s strong sense of place while also expanding economic development opportunities.

“Downtown Dahlonega is a sparkling example of how careful planning, small business support and historic preservation can combine to create a thriving downtown,” says Patrice Frey, president and CEO of the National Main Street Center. “Its downtown district, art galleries, restored theater and courthouse stand out in North Georgia, making Dahlonega a truly distinctive shopping and dining destination and a charming place to call home.”

“Dahlonega’s economic success has been built upon our precious historic architecture and resources,” says Dahlonega Mayor Gary McCullough. “Local leaders, partners and stakeholders continue to plan and work diligently to preserve and promote our historic village as an economic center of North Georgia.”

In its 15 years of operation, Dahlonega Main Street distinguished itself as a vital downtown partner in several ways. When a fire devastated several businesses in 2014, the organization led the effort to assess the damage, create an action plan and relocate displaced businesses and 40 employees. In partnership with the Dahlonega-Lumpkin County Chamber of Commerce, local and state government agencies, and the University of North Georgia, Dahlonega Main Street has facilitated 180 building rehabilitations, 108 new business openings and a reduction in retail vacancy rates from 20 percent in 2000 to 2 percent today.

The other two 2016 GAMSA winners are Shaw District in Washington, D.C., and Audubon Park in Orlando, Fla. Dahlonega will be the fourth community in Georgia, behind Thomasville, Rome and Milledgeville,  to receive the prestigious GAMSA designation.

To learn about GAMSA and previous winners, visit http://www.preservationnation.org/mainstreet/awards/gamsa/past-winners.html For more information about Dahlonega Main Street, visit www.dahlonegadda.org and find them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

ABC COMPETITION ANNOUNCES THE EIGHT FINALIST COMMUNITIES IN THE $10 MILLION PRIZE CAMPAIGN

The City of Tybee Island is one of ten Georgia communities which will receive federal sub-grants totaling more than $90,000 from the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Historic Preservation Fund to conduct historic preservation projects.  The funding awarded to the City of Tybee Island is to conclude the city-wide historic resources survey update which began last year with the FY2015 Historic Preservation Fund Grant.  This first phase of the survey has identified approximately 845 historic resources, which is nearly 40% of the structures on the island.  Completion of this comprehensive survey will further the efforts for planning with preservation in mind and strengthen the support for future historic districts and individual listings for the National Register.  Mayor Jason Buelterman states, “We are honored to receive funding to update the City’s Historic Resources Survey with this grant cycle.  This project furthers our commitment to historic preservation on Tybee.  With this survey, we are following through with a top priority stakeholders identified within the city’s Master Plan and adding to our planning strategies for the resident’s quality of life, as well as the visitor’s experience.”

For the FFY 2016 grant cycle, the preservation projects include historic resources surveys in five other Georgia communities, development grants for a National Historic Landmark house museum, a historic theater, and a historic cemetery, and one predevelopment grant to a battlefield site.  Grant projects are to be completed by September 2017.

The grants are provided annually through the Historic Preservation Fund of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service and are administered by the Historic Preservation Division (HPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Each year, Georgia’s 94 Certified Local Governments (CLGs) are eligible to apply for these matching 60% federal/40% local grants. To be eligible to become a federal Certified Local Government, a city or county must have passed a preservation ordinance and have established a historic preservation commission.

“The Certified Local Government program is one of our most important community stabilization and revitalization tools,” said David Crass, HPD Division Director.  “By becoming a CLG,  neighborhoods take control of their own economic destiny, and gain access to HPD technical expertise and assistance, which helps them protect the resources that make them unique.”

Crass added “In 2013, we announced the addition of development (bricks-and-mortar rehabilitation) as an eligible activity for this grant program, and had, through last year, funded five applicable projects.  In this 2016 grant cycle, we are pleased to be able to fund three more development projects, and we look forward to working with those communities in the coming year.”

The City of Tybee Island takes pride in preserving the community, commerce, and culture of Georgia’s northernmost barrier island year-round for its citizens, merchants, and visitors.  The city became a CLG in 2014 due to the support and dedication of elected officials and involved stakeholders to protect and preserve the character of the island.  Since 1982, three National Register Historic Districts, a multiple property district, and fourteen individual listings have been listed.  Additional nominations are currently being considered.  These listings and other preservation efforts such as financial incentives and assistance offered through the Development Authority/Main Street Program and the Historical Society, the pursuit of local historic districts, and collaboration among community stakeholders enforce the community’s commitment to preservation, quality growth and enhancements, and education.

From time to time, as a step to help supplement our regular monthly webinar series, we will be offering special pre-recorded webinars on design, preservation and economic development based topics.  To kick off this initiative we have uploaded a new pre-recorded webinar to our Georgia Main Street YouTube channel that we hope you will enjoy. Last Friday we had the pleasure of collaborating with Keyes Williamson, ASLA, and Madie Fischetti, ASLA, of the Athens based Jaeger Company for a special webinar titled “Outside the Storefront.”

During this presentation Keyes and Madie explore three different types of downtown historic landscapes including streetscapes, parks, and cemeteries. Highlighting best practices from three of our very own Georgia Main Street communities, the presenters discuss the planning process for treatment of these landscapes, from concept to implementation of design.  This webinar will help take you away from the typical facade rendering and show what Main Street program’s can do for their downtown when we step outside the box and think beyond the storefront.

Learn more about our presenters Keyes Williamson and Madie Fischetti:

Keyes Williamson, is Principal at The Jaeger Company and has over 25 years in the design and maintenance of public spaces. Keyes brings experience managing landscapes at historic sites, including Monticello and Old Salem, and directing the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum into his approach to landscape design and preservation planning. Keyes has been involved in a wide range of construction and planning projects for a range of clients, including universities, federal agencies, and municipalities. Keyes has also worked on a variety of preservation studies, including cultural landscape inventories, reports, and preservation plans.

Madie Fischetti serves as Senior Landscape Architect/Project Manager at The Jaeger Company and has over 14 years professional design experience. Madie is responsible for a number of the firm’s downtown design efforts including master planning and streetscape design projects. Madie has assisted in numerous projects involving public participation and conducting community and user group input sessions. In addition to being a landscape architect, Madie has a Certificate in Historic Preservation from the University of Georgia, allowing her to assume leadership roles in historic landscape projects such as Cultural Landscape Reports and sensitive site design at historic sites.

By Walter C. Jones Morris News Service – updated Monday, February 15, 2016 – 7:29pm

Georgia city semifinalist in America’s Best Communities competition

Lauren Colley
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The city of Statesboro has advanced to the semifinals of the America’s Best Communities competition, Frontier Communications announced Wednesday. Statesboro is home to Georgia Southern University and is one of just 15 communities nationwide to advance to this stage.

The three-year competition is sponsored by Frontier Communications, DISH, CoBank and The Weather Channel, and was launched to encourage revitalization in small towns and cities.

As a semifinalist, Statesboro could potentially win major funding to implement its proposed revitalization plan that focuses on the “Blue Mile”— the corridor that connects Georgia Southern University to the city’s downtown.

“Great communities don’t just happen. They are the result of people working together for the common good. After achieving this milestone, it is clear Statesboro isn’t just a great community — it is one of America’s best,” said Jaclyn Cason, general manager for Frontier Communications in Statesboro.

Statesboro and the other 14 semifinalists will present their proposed plans at the America’s Best Communities Summit in April, where eight finalists will be announced and awarded $100,00 to launch their revitalization projects.

The community whose projects make the largest impact will be selected as the grand prize winner and awarded $3 million. Second place will receive $2 million, and third place will receive $1 million.

“One in six of us calls rural America home. These communities are the backbone of our country,” said Vince Gill, the country music great who has served as a spokesperson for the competition. “America’s Best Communities has inspired new hope in rural America by providing a hand up, not a hand out. It’s helping our neighbors in small communities lift themselves up by their bootstraps and live their own American dream.”

Statesboro was one of 50 communities selected from a pool of more than 135 community applicants to advance to the second phase of the contest last year.

Join us on Tuesday, January 12th for our annual Georgia Main Street State of the Program webinar. During this webinar we will be reviewing for you things that your community will need to know to be successful in 2016. This will include the roll out of the new 2016 Annual Standards for Accreditation as well as new information about training and the monthly reporting process in the new year. This webinar will be recorded and published on our Georgia Main Street YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/gamainst for later viewing if you are unable to participate live.

Register Here

The National Main Street Center, Inc., has announced that seven U.S. cities have been selected as demonstration sites to implement its refreshed approach to comprehensive community revitalization and preservation-based economic development: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Milledgeville, Georgia; Biloxi, Mississippi; Detroit, Michigan; Gary, Indiana; Lexington, Kentucky; and Miami, Florida. The program is supported by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

“We are grateful to Knight Foundation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation for their generous support as we roll out a strengthened approach to commercial district revitalization,” said Patrice Frey, president and CEO of the National Main Street Center. “Our updated methodology incorporates lessons we’ve learned in our decades of working with communities of all sizes and we are confident these pilot projects will demonstrate that our approach continues to be highly effective in breathing new life in our country’s historic downtowns and commercial districts.”

Each community, chosen after a competitive selection process, will benefit from recent strategic improvements to the National Main Street Center’s revitalization methodology that for 35 years has helped transform historic downtowns and urban neighborhoods nationwide. Local leaders will receive 12 to 18 months of free organizational capacity building and hands-on technical assistance from national experts on how best to involve the community in revitalization efforts, plan and executive long-term strategic action, and effectively measure the impact of those efforts.

“Providing people with spaces to connect and participate in neighborhood life is essential to creating the type of cities where people want to live and work,” said Carol Coletta, Knight Foundation vice president for community and national initiatives. “The initiative will do just that by working with cities to create more vibrant downtown hubs and engaging residents as change agents in this transformation.”

Originally launched as a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1980, the National Main Street Center pioneered an incremental, volunteer-driven strategy to help flagging downtowns counteract booming suburban growth. This novel approach was in stark contrast to the urban renewal projects that were destroying commercial districts and neighborhoods all over the country. By tapping two important community resources, citizen participation and its older and historic buildings, the Main Street Approach has helped reinvigorate America’s historic downtowns and commercial districts in cities and towns across the country.

More information on the pilot program can be found at http://www.preservationnation.org/main-street/.

The Rome Historic Preservation Commission approved changes to the facades at two Broad Street buildings on Wednesday. The changes proposed for the Tillman Insurance building at 424 Broad St. will take the building back to a more traditional historic appearance.

Throughout the past few years, the village of Porterdale has worked hard to rebuild its community, addressing issues surrounding vacant, substandard or under-utilized houses and commercial buildings.

Those efforts will be recognized by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, which will designate Porterdale a PlanFirst Community for the next three years, beginning Jan. 1.

Brian Johnson, Director of the Office of Planning and Environmental Management for the Georgia Department of Community Affairs sent an email to Village Manager Bob Thomson congratulating the village on the designation.

“Your PlanFirst designation will recognize your community’s hard work and successful comprehensive plan implementation,” he wrote, “and will allow Porterdale to take advantage of various incentives offered through the program.”

Representatives from the DCA visited the village in September and met with the mayor, city council and city manager.

“They looked at the historic gym project, the kayak launch, Yellow River Park and the pocket parks,” said City Manager Bob Thomson. They also looked at “Main Street, the historic preservation, the improved housing stock as a result of the increased activity in code enforcement.”

Many of those projects grew out of the village’s 2012 Urban Renewal Plan, which Thomson said was the result of a community-wide effort by businesses elected officials and community leaders. The project was facilitated and instituted by the Vinson Institute of Government.

After showing Thomson and the city council what had been accomplished, Mayor Arline Chapman told them about the two Porterdale’s — the one inhabited by people who are buying houses to restore, and the other where people are living in poverty and may never be able to own a home.

“We can never turn our back on those people,” she said, referencing the latter group. “How can we help them buy homes?”

One of the ways was to pursue obtaining Community HOME Investment Program (CHIP) funds is a state program that would help the city address the needs of affordable housing development and can be used to provide down payment assistance or homeowner rehabilitation funding to eligible low-income and moderate-income households.

And while economic development was included in the plan, the most immediate issue was bringing housing up to livable standards. That meant enforcing municipal codes. Some houses had fallen into such disrepair, they had to be condemned. Others, many owned by outside landlords, were required to meet standards that made the property livable and safe, including, when needed, installing heat and running water.

At a council meeting this summer, it was announced that the last uninhabitable house in Porterdale met city code standards.

Thomson said that since adopting the plan, the city had met or achieved 80 percent of the objectives and goals set in 2012.

After reviewing all that the city had accomplished, the PlanFirst representatives, Chapman said, “applauded us.”

Porterdale is one of only seven communities that have been designated a PlanFirst Community. In addition to Porterdale, they are Dublin, Columbus, Lula, Roswell and Gwinnett and Liberty counties.

PlanFirst communities are able to take advantage of programs that include:

• statewide recognition for community achievement;

• Annual Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) application eligibility, normally only available every other year;

• access to reduced interest rate on certain Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) state loans; and

• bonus points on applications for DCA programs including Employment Incentive Program (EIP), Downtown Development Revolving Loan Fund (DDRLF) and Redevelopment Fund.

According to Johnson’s email, Porterdale will be recognized across the state as a community “that possesses a vision of its future and maintains an active strategy for implementing that vision.”

Representatives from the DCA will be scheduling a visit to the village before the end of the year to make a public presentation of the designation at an upcoming council meeting.

In 2012, the Village of Porterdale adopted an Urban Redevelopment Plan that identified the need to rebuild infrastructure, such as sewers, in some neighborhoods; adopting municipal and property maintenance codes and developing partnerships with local groups, such as Habitat for Humanity and the Public Housing Authority, to repair homes; create a downtown business district; establish a historic preservation commission; and create enterprise and opportunity zones through a downtown development authority.

The DCA is working on plans for a “Plan First Day” at the Capitol in January. The DCA will officially present the award to Porterdale then.