Augustans weigh in on 5-year update, development plan
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Augusta has seen about an extra 5,000 people move into the city every year since 2017, and by 2050 the city’s population will be an estimated 230,000.
While it’s exciting for the area, people are sharing concerns that more development projects are being started than completed.
Wednesday’s meeting with Augusta Planning and Development was a lot of talk, without a lot of hard plans. But from the of a few dozen there, Augustans are more worried about wiping out the garden city’s current grime.
“We’re supposed to be the Garden City but no one can find the Gardens, that was one of the comments that we saw over and over,” said Planning and Development Director, Carla Delaney.
Following six public meetings over May and June, Wednesday’s meeting brought together county-wide suggestions.
Part of that was justifying the county’s newly increased tax assessments.
“There should not be a fear of your home value going up, that’s a plus, not a minus,” said Delaney.
However, Wednesday’s group wanted to reel things back into fixing the grunge, like dilapidated and abandoned buildings.
Thomas Tinley, an Augusta resident, said: “Businesses are closing. West Richmond County is becoming dilapidated because we’re not resolving the homeless situation.”
As well as looking to more of Augusta’s own workers with ambitious projects lined up over the next few years.
“The fact is, existing staff, in the previous slide, aren’t going to do that without more money, without more staff,” said Dan Funsch, an Augusta resident.
In the end, Augusta Planning and Development stuck to their goals, but couldn’t dive too much deeper into certain numbers gathered from other departments.
Delaney continued: “We just want to make sure that when you come back to this community in 10, 15, 20, 30 years, it looks like a place you want to live.”
When it came to the Richmond County School System’s optimistic expansion plans, Augusta Planning and Development couldn’t speak on their behalf.
They say this is still a draft and a final plan should come out in August, that then goes to commissioners in October.
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