HARRISBURG BLUEPRINTS FOR SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITIES: GEORGIA CONSERVANCY

The Big Idea: Provide direction to the residents of Harrisburg to redevelop their area of the City.

Time: Project Complete (2 years to complete)

Details: In September 2010, the Georgia Conservancy met with members of the Harrisburg Committee to discuss initiating a Blueprints Project for Successful Communities in Harrisburg. Initial work began in the fall of 2010. The Community raised $25,000 toward this initiative, and the remaining funding came from a Home Depot grant. This initiative was a collaboration with the Georgia Conservancy, Georgia Institute of Technology (GeorgiaTech) and community organizations in Augusta. The first community workshop was held on 2/5/2011, and the second on 3/11/2011. The workshops were facilitated by the Blueprints Team and Georgia Tech students and faculty who were the face and workforce behind the project. Harrisburg’s challenges, hot issues and strengths were discussed at the meetings. The planning study on-site work ran through May 2011. Working within the structure of the 2009 Urban Area Master Plan, the final deliverable by the students was actual recommendations for completing projects as outlined in the Master Plan. In February 2012, “Reclaiming Historic Harrisburg, Augusta, Georgia was unveiled to the Augusta community. This was the culmination of the Blueprints Project and provided the Harrisburg Community with real life implementation suggestions for making positive changes in Harrisburg.

Progress: On 2/15/2011, the Harrisburg Blueprints Project, published by the Georgia Conservancy, was unveiled to the community. The final document, called “Reclaiming Historic Harrisburg” outlined actual recommendations for completing projects as outlined in the 2009 Master Plan, The Westobou Vision. The Harrisburg Blueprints final document can be found on the Resources page of this website.