A public meeting of about 30 people Wednesday in Beks Restaurant kicked off the official beginnings of the DREAM project's strategic plan phase.
The DREAM Initiative, which stands for Downtown Revitalization and Economic Assistance for Missouri, provides technical and financial assistance to communities such as Fulton to help revitalize their downtown districts. The meeting was planned by project manager Andrew Murray of PGAV Planners, an urban planning and development firm with DREAM.
"The goals are to reuse properties from downtown, to property tax values, and to embrace the cultural heritage of the community and to attract new types of investments," said Murray. "(The strategic plan) helps unify the visions of the community, and that's why we're having these public meetings... just to get everyone's input."
Murray said the strategic plan was important because it analyzed factors such as Fulton's land use, building and infrastructure, community engagement, organizational structure and other aspects of the community vital to completing the project.
He said following the kickoff meeting, the plan phase would conduct a web survey of what people in the Fulton community wanted out of the downtown district, input from the Brick District Association, businesses and property owners, a final draft of the Downtown Strategic Plan and a follow-up public meeting before the plan is presented to the city for formal adoption.
Fulton plans to make a number of renovations to its downtown brick district, including the installation of additional street lights, opening Court Street to two-way traffic and erecting landscaped signs downtown.