SNELLVILLE - A task force comprised of students, business owners and community leaders met with representatives of Jacobs - a planning and engineering firm - to begin talks about the city's 2040 Comprehensive Plan Update Thursday.
The Comprehensive Plan is a map of the city's future for the next 20 years and sets policy and direction and a five-year work program to accomplish these goals. The topic areas include land use, transportation, housing, economic development and quality of life issues.
It is the first time the task force met following a day of interviews by "stakeholders" - another group of business and community leaders - last month. That group told Jacobs its opinion of the strengths and weaknesses of the city.
The task force was asked "What kind of place do you want Snellville to be in 2040?"
"You will be deciding what the city will become," said Jacobs Urban Planner Meghan McMullen. "You are representatives of the city whether you go to school here, your business is here - you will be the ones taking the conversation of the future of the city back to kitchen tables."
The task force took part in a SWOT analysis which asked the group its impressions of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the city.
The task force will meet three more times through September and will address the Livable Centers Initiative and draft community polices and the work program after identifying areas of need.
A website detailing the process will be launched next week and members of Jacobs will be at Public Safety Night June 5 on the Towne Green, an August Snellville Farmers' Market and at a local shopping center to get more resident input.
