'Charrette' study gives town pointers for growth

By Jennifer Jacob Brown

jbrown@themeridianstar.com

When a small town of 1,500 sits shoulder-to-shoulder with a city of 40,000, the larger town is bound to steal the spotlight most of the time, and the town of Marion has seen no exception. For more than 40 years, the tiny community has been eclipsed by its much larger neighbor, Meridian.

By and large, Marion has just had to put up with being overshadowed by its sister city, but that could change. Thanks to a grant from the Montgomery Institute, a group of researchers have put their heads together and come up with a variety of steps Marion could take to stand out and grow.

The group performed an intensive study on the town, what they called a charrette, and came back with a plan to help Marion forge a unique identity — independently of Meridian.

Three organizations worked together to make the charrette happen. The Mississippi Main Street Association, Meridian Community College, and the West Alabama East Mississippi Initiative all had a role in securing a grant from the Montgomery Institute to fund the project. All three also helped to administrate the project.

Using the grant, design and planning professionals were hired to create a strategic plan for Marion's growth and improvement.

The charrette began with a community-wide meeting. All of Marion was invited to meet with the design team in order to give the charrette team an idea of their aspirations for the community.

For three days, the team took all the information they had on the community and generated images of what Marion could one day look like. These images and ideas were presented to the community on the final day of the charrette.

The presentation, Marion Mayor Elvis Hudson said, "was worth its weight in gold. You can talk about this stuff every day. But getting a visual picture of what it will look like, the pictures said it all."

The pictures showed a vastly improved Marion. In the computer generated images, unsightly commercial signs are replaced with nicer looking municipal ones, sidewalks and crosswalks are inserted, buildings are made over, and a park is inserted next to Town Hall, among many other things.

The charrette team also provided Marion with a colorful new logo and a slogan "Common Threads, Tightly Woven."

"We branded and showed them how to market their entire community," said Jan Miller, central regional director for MMSA. "They received services they would never have been able to afford if they had gone out and hired them on their own."

Miller said the charrette team identified several major steps Marion can take to improve as a small community.

One was the implementation of their new logo, which the town has already begun using. They were also advised to improve the look of their main 4-way stop at Lindley Road and Dale Drive by adding crosswalks and landscaping and removing some unattractive signage, to improve their signage in general, to "build up" around Town Hall, to create a farmer's market, and to have festivals as often as they can.

To add public space to Marion, the team drew up plans for a park and gazebo area next to Town Hall, including better access to the area via a new parking lot and a sidewalk along Dale Drive, as well as plans to put a small library branch in an old bank building that is no longer in use.

Of course, street lights, sidewalks, and libraries all cost money — and with only 1,500 residents, that's something that Marion doesn't have an abundance of.

But the charrette team aims to help Marion find ways to fund the improvements, and will provide Marion with fundraising recommendations, along with a written explanation of their plan and organizational recommendations, in four to six weeks.

MMSA has done charrettes in 14 communities in Mississippi, including Newton, Heidelberg, and Laurel, and Miller said they have all proven helpful.

"It's been great," she said. "It's a huge success. They're already seeing huge returns. (The charrette) didn't cost them anything, so it's all returns."

Once a charrette is complete, MMSA assists towns in implementing the charrette recommendations, Miller said, and that will include Marion.

Hudson was ecstatic with the entire charrette process. "It was outstanding," he said. "I don't have the words to explain how I truly felt seeing what the town of Marion could look like... We have a community that is coming together and is eager for the growth. They want to see this happen for the town of Marion."

The best part about it, Hudson said, is that the plan is not too far out of reach. "Take the park, for example," he said. "That's a goal that can be reached. There's not a whole lot of out-of-pocket expense."

The timing he said, is also great, because the town is growing. Over the summer, a small shopping center was built, and it is now home to a specialty shop called the Mud Puddle, a pet grooming service called Bow Wow, and a karate school.

Hudson said plans are underway for a hobby shop at the shopping center, which would fill the last remaining space in the new building.

"The town of Marion is eagerly awaiting more retail space," he said. "I'm getting inquiries every day about buildings to rent, but we don't have any buildings available right now."

Miller said she is eager to see Marion reach its potential and feels that the charrette can certainly help them do that.

"It's just a great process and Marion is a great place," she said. "We're looking forward to working with them."

For more information on the Mississippi Main Street Association and charrettes, visit www.msmainstreet.com.