"At The Tilting Point": Canton Comes Together To Map Out Future

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Canton, GA -- More than 100 residents, elected officials and stakeholders packed into Canton City Hall Thursday evening to brainstorm what the future holds for two of its most distinct areas.

The #CantonForward workshop was designed to gather feedback from residents on how they’d like to see the downtown area as well as the city’s River Mill District develop over the next several years.

A presentation was held before the brainstorming session in which representatives from TSW, the group Canton hired to perform an Atlanta Regional Commission-funded Livable Centers Initiative study of the area, presented an overview of some of Canton’s assets and possible shortcomings.

Organizers also presented examples of how other cities across the southeastern United States invested in particular distressed areas, which led to subsequent economic booms for those municipalities.

Tom Walsh, founding principal at TSW, said Canton’s LCI update will be the document ”that gives you that lift to go sell your town.”

Canton has great bones -- its existing buildings and infrastructure, -- but its imperative that the city uses its imagination to make that leap.

Woody Giles, an associate with the firm, told the audience the organization held a series of public outreach campaigns at city events over the course of the last few months. For example, residents were asked to describe the city in one word. One of the positive images for Canton? Historic. A negative? Boring.

He also shared some statistics about the city, such as 25 percent of its residents are baby boomers, 55 percent of its housing is owner-occupied and 38 percent of those polled would moved to downtown Canton. Along with a demand for about eight single-family residential homes each year, downtown Canton also has the potential to support 40,000-square-feet of additional retail space, which could include shops, restaurants or bars.

Cheri Morris, a long-time developer who assisted with the Woodstock Downtown creation and Vickery Village in Forsyth County, first reminded residents of one point to remember.

“Retail is the tail that wags the dog,” she said, adding it draws in the “creative class” responsible for driving initiatives such as community gardens and arts organizations.

Metro Atlanta cities that not near population centers have to work harder to draw people to their areas. Lucky for Canton, the city has an “unmatched set” of assets, such as the Etowah River and great grid network of streets.

If the city could work on finding direct connectivity to the river from downtown, that could be a true gem that would pay off significantly, she said.

As for the River Mill area of the city, Morris stated she could see the transformation of the former offices into “makers places” -- a district designed for businesses specializing in hand-crafted items and goods.

Other things the city can look at is adding more housing to downtown Canton, ways to connect the two districts and possibly re-orienting city streets.

Following the presentation, the crowd was unleashed to six stations where they were asked to ponder the River Mill District, downtown, review ideas from Hasty Elementary School students, how to get around (transportation methods), market and arts ideas and a place to list “really good ideas” for the future.

Canton residents wasted no time providing feedback at the stations, some of which included an opportunity for residents to use red or blue stickers to indicate how they felt about particular architecture.

For Zach Kell, owner of Downtown Kitchen and Goin’ Coastal, seeing everyone come together was something one couldn’t help but to watch in awe.

“I love it,” he said of the activity on the third floor of Canton City Hall.

Kell told Patch he believed downtown Canton will eventually turn a corner and see some economic rebirth.

“I think people have to be patient,” he said, adding Woodstock’s success was close to 10 years in the making. “We are at the tilting point. It’s going to happen.”

Fellow residents Dee Stone, Renee Parks and Melinda Brown also shared with Patch what they wanted to see happen in downtown Canton.

Stone, who added she was “excited” at the participation, added she’d like to see more cultural diversity and an opportunity for residential units to open on top of businesses.

That, she said, would allow residents to walk to area shops, restaurants and home without having to use their cars to get around.

“And it can happen...if they get creative with their transportation,” Stone added.

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Photo 1: residents at the downtown Canton station
Photo 2: residents visiting the idea wall from students at Hasty Elementary School
Photo 3: residents use blue or red dots to rate how they like particular development aesthetics
Photo 4: the wall for ideas from students at Hasty Elementary School