Four years after Fulton was named a DREAM community, leaders of a local group are working to lay the groundwork to help meet some of the goals set by that program, the main objective of which is to revitalize the city's downtown area.
"I think that's probably kind of a three-fold task," said Tom Riley, new president of the Downtown Fulton Brick District Association. "At it's most basic level, (our mission is) we need to fill more buildings with businesses that will attract more traffic downtown."
Riley added that one of the first steps toward obtaining that objective will be establishing the Brick District Overlay Zoning Area - which would prohibit buildings in that area from allowing residential use on the ground floor. Buildings already utilizing that space as residential would be grandfathered in.
A proposal to that end currently is before the Fulton City Council, although it was tabled at the council's Jan. 24 meeting when questions were raised about how the downtown merchants felt about the plan. The topic is slated to be discussed again at the council's Feb. 14 meeting.
"(The council) is going to bring it up again Tuesday because we have all the business owners back on board, so I think we're going to be able to move forward," Riley said.