Lavonia Citizens Give Input Into 2019 Comprehensive Plan

Concerned citizens gathered at Lavonia City Hall Tuesday evening to get more information on Lavonia’s 2019 Comprehensive Plan.

Adam Hazell, Planning Director with the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission gave a presentation after the regular City Council meeting.

Hazell says Lavonia’s Comprehensive Plan is part of an overall Countywide Plan to set economic goals for local governments over the next five to 20 years.

“The intent of this is talk about the future of Lavonia,” Hazell said. “We’re working on a document called the Franklin County Joint Comprehensive Plan. This is a document which is a business plan for government. It’s a document where each community stops and takes the pulse of what things are, what’s working, what’s not, and where we want to be a generation from now; what you want to keep, what you want to change.”

The Georgia Planning Act of 1989 established the framework for how local governments in Georgia plan for their future in conjunction with neighboring governments, utility providers, and other stakeholders.

During the presentation Hazell asked those attending for more feedback on what they would like to see in Lavonia in the future.

One citizen, Morris Johnson, said he would like to see some better clothing retailers.

“I’m talking about the clothing and the businesses we need to come in,” he said. “I didn’t get what I wore to work today from around here. I had to go to Gainesville. I had no place here to buy shoes. I had to go to Belk’s in Toccoa. There’s no place to buy shoes and to buy clothes.”

Other suggestions included retirement housing, a rural transit system, improved recreation, better use of Lavonia’s ball fields, and fixing up older homes in the Spring St. /Washington St. neighborhoods.

Hazell said citizens who did not attend the presentation can go online and take a survey at surveymonkey.com/DPKK5TB.

Local governments in Georgia who develop and maintain a comprehensive plan are a ssigned a “Qualified Local Government” status, which makes them eligible for a host of State funding and assistance.