Help Determine Dunwoody's Future

The following is straight off the city of Dunwoody's webpage and contains information on the city's Comprehensive Land Use Plan, which, for all intent and purpose, we charter the course of the city. The first public meeting concerning the plan is this coming Tuesday evening. Details are below.

City of Dunwoody Comprehensive Plan

Under the leadership of the Mayor and City Council we have begun the process of writing the first City of Dunwoody Comprehensive Plan. The public meetings to solicit your opinions and visions of the future will happen over the summer and early fall months. The plan is to be the “Community Agenda”, a policy guide that details the community’s visions and goals for the future. This is a plan truly created by the community, for the community. We need to know your thoughts!

How do I participate?
There will be five public meetings, and we highly recommend your attend as many as possible. The meetings will have different themes, exercises, and information.

The dates are:
Tuesday June 2
Tuesday June 23
Tuesday July 7
Monday August 3
Thursday September 24
Location:
Dunwoody United Methodist Church
1548 Mount Vernon Road (Click for Map)
Dunwoody, GA 30338
Time:
7:00PM

Community Workshops and Meetings
The City of Dunwoody Community Workshops and Meetings for the Comprehensive Plan are organized so that participants:

· learn about the Comprehensive Planning process
· obtain data about their city (prepared in the Community Assessment)
· express preferences and priorities for the future of the City
· engage in city planning

The workshops will include information and education regarding community planning specific to the City of Dunwoody and the Metro-region.

Schedule of Activities:

June 2 Kick-Off
Present Process and Community Assessment Key Findings
Preliminary Issues/Opportunities (whole assembly)
Change/Preserve exercise (break-out working groups)

June 23 Transportation, Gateways and Urban Design
July 7 Parks, Facilities and Funding
August 3 Putting it all together: Vision and Future Development
September 24 Open House – Community Agenda Draft Components
December Public Hearing
A series of official public hearings will provide community members an opportunity to review the draft Community Agenda, comprised of the community Vision, Policies and Implementation plan.

What is a Comprehensive Plan?
The City of Dunwoody has begun the process of creating its first Comprehensive Plan. The Community Development Department leads this effort, but the process will coordinate policy across city departments. A team of consultants facilitates in engaging the community and preparing the components comprising the Comprehensive Plan. Once completed and adopted, the document will serve as a source for key city data and a strategic plan guiding city officials and staff concerning the future development of the city.

The Comprehensive Planning effort contemplates the 2009 - 2030 planning period, and is undertaken per the Rules of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA), O.C.G.A. Chapter 110-12-1, effective May 1, 2005. It asserts a long-range vision and commits the city to a short term action plan.

DCA rules state the format of the Comprehensive Planning process consists of three distinct components as follows:

Community Assessment: Summary of existing conditions with supporting data
Community Participation: Program for providing public input opportunities
Community Agenda (link coming soon!): Policy goals and strategies for plan implementation

The Community Assessment provides an analysis of existing conditions, issues, and trends facing the City of Dunwoody and reports detailed data in a Technical Addendum to support key findings. Furthermore, the Assessment identifies unique opportunities and advantages the community has at its disposal. These elements are combined to inform a strategic plan for the municipality over the 20 year Comprehensive Plan horizon. The Assessment contains this Executive Summary, which presents salient data, and is supplemented by an attached Technical Appendix which includes the full data analysis for existing conditions. As a base-line resource from which community members can draw during the development of that Community Agenda, the Community Assessment helps communicate the City’s profile. A primary component of the Assessment is the Character Area map (categorizing areas of the City and their respective character type), from which a future development map will be derived during the creation of the Community Agenda. Additionally, a map identifying Special Areas of Attention, along with a series of Cultural Resource, Natural Resource, Community Facilities and Transportation maps help to graphically visualize the infrastructure, institutional and natural features of the Dunwoody. The Community Assessment should serve government officials and the public as a concise reference document. (click here for the Technical Addendum)

The Community Participation Program details what measures a local government will undertake in order to ensure that community members can participate in the creation of an Agenda for future planning.

This Community Agenda is the heart of the Comprehensive Plan; it articulates the community vision for a 20 year planning period and provides the policy that guides land-use decision making. It also specifies the strategies by which the community intends to pursue its vision, with a five-year action plan detailing implementation of goals and policies.