Anniston Holds Successful Planing Meeting with the Community 9/9/2021

September 10, 2021
Lee Evancho

The city of Anniston is working to engage residents in working toward improving their city. One step in this process is a Charrette Workshop. The first meeting was held Thursday, September 9th. Approximately 50 people gathered to take part as city planners and to help develop strategic plans for various parts of the city.

The meeting was started by the City Manager, Steven Folks, welcome all who were in attendance and to explain the process and why they were starting the sessions. He also stressed that he wanted to make Anniston better every day. He also stressed the importance of unification.

Mayor Draper was the next to speak and reiterated a thanks to all those in attendance. He wants to stimulate economic development and to improve the overall quality of life in Anniston. He unofficially dubbed all the attendees as “city planners.”

Phillip Walker with the Walker Collaborative spoke next to start talking about the specifics that they are looking at and really targeting. The specific areas the meeting was set to focus on was:

A Project Overview
Key Findings
Public Input Results
Draft Vision Statement
Draft Planning Principles
Planning Exercise
Reporting of Plan Ideas
Next Steps

He also explained that the basic idea of a comprehensive plan is to have a blueprint for the future growth and development of the community. It also should answer four key questions:

Where are we now?
Where are we headed?
Where are we wanting to go?
How do we get there?

The most interactive portion of the evening was when small groups were developed to come up with different ideas. Out of the box thinking was encouraged as well as being respectful of all ideas. As the small groups were working the consulting team walked around to talk and assist.

At the end of the meeting each group was asked to present their ideas and plans. To view the video of the meeting please visit the city’s facebook page. There will also be another meeting on on September 13th from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm.