to vision & act together

Great work is being accomplished every single day across out city and it is thanks to citizens and leaders alike that Marietta is consistently ranked at the top of tourism-inspired lists. We have tremendous assets - but we want more. We want our community to come together and lead the way to our future. What do we want our city to be known for? What experiences do we want to provide? How do we want our community to feel? We are our own dreamers, makers, and doers and we want to vision and act together.

The City of Marietta has initiated a process to create a Comprehensive Economic Development Plan for Downtown Marietta. This planning process will allow the community and local leaders to realize the ambitions of the City and its resident and businesses in order to make better decisions in the future regarding planning, land use, and policy making.

What is a downtown plan?

A downtown plan looks at the potential of a community’s core downtown district through an engaging process that brings people together to talk about their ideas and aspirations for the future. It is the vision of what a community wants to become and the steps needed to realize that vision. The revitalization plan is important to those who live, work, and play in the downtown.

The visioning process uses a variety of tools to build consensus around a desired outcome, future, or image. The process is built extensively on public and stakeholder involvement. It asks community residents and stakeholders: “What are your ideas for the future?” and “What kind of community do you want to be part of?”

The answer to these questions become the foundation of the vision.

why have a vision?

The visioning process helps communities, organizations and individuals identify what is important to them, their ideas and plans for the future, and more importantly, how to make those ideas and dreams come true. Visioning can help communities reach goals that are hard to reach in any other way.

What is involved in preparing a vision plan?

As part of the visioning process, information and data is gathered from prior planning studies, while current views and opinions are collected through community meetings and forums where residents are invited to provide input on the future of Downtown Marietta. Other sources include data gathered from the US Census, and mapping data provided by the City and County.

How does this work?

• Creating shared goals for the future of the community

• Identifying a way to make the shared goals happen

• Building an understanding and goodwill between groups that sometimes don’t agree with each other

• Inspiring ownership in people for their community

• Developing new leaders in the community

benefits of visioning for communities:

• Breaks people out of boundary thinking

• Provides continuity between multiple community initiatives, and creates a solid foundation from which these initiatives are grown

• Identifies direction and purpose

• Alerts stakeholders to needed change

• Promotes interest and commitment

• Promotes a focus on what’s important

• Encourages openness to unique and creative solutions

• Encourages and builds confidence

• Builds loyalty and ownership through involvement

• Results in efficiency and productivity

The planning process includes:

• Data collection and analysis that will ultimately inform the vision, goals, and objectives of the Plan

• Multiple public outreach meetings

• A community-wide survey of residents

• An interactive project website designed to engage citizens online and host project information and data

• Focused plans and strategies to improve targeted areas within the community

• Targeted implementation strategies, including projects, programs and policies to achieve the desired vision