GARNER -- Urban planners have worked up a vision that calls for major development downtown and in North Garner, hoping to rejuvenate a dormant town center that has been elbowed aside as U.S. 70 has sprouted its sprawl of shopping plazas and restaurants.
If the plan becomes a reality, they say, this southern Wake town could become a stronger magnet for families looking for affordable housing in a neighborhood that could mix history with modern living.
Although the plan is in an early stage, remaking this community already faces hurdles. Garner has tried to revitalize its downtown before, with little success.
To make this plan succeed, property owners in the Main Street and Garner Roadareas would have to agree to sell their homes to make way for new construction.
The town would likely have to invest some serious cash in hopes that the private sector would follow suit. Drivers would have to be willing to veer off busy U.S. 70 to patronize new stores and restaurants downtown.
Perhaps the biggest challenge would be convincing people that Garner has a downtown and that they should want to live and shop there.
"In a way, I see this as a big image builder," said John Hodges, director of the Garner Revitalization Association, which is working with Garner leaders and urban-planning firms hired by the town.
As Garner has grown from a stop along the railroad into Raleigh to a city of more than 25,000 people, its center has shifted. The town hall downtown burned in the 1970s, and leaders built a new one off Aversboro Road, on the opposite side of U.S.70 from downtown. Now, many people who have lived in Garner for years don't even know where downtown is, Mayor Ronnie Williams said.
The new plan could change that.
"This is about giving them some reason to go there," Williams said.
But even Williams, who has served in Garner's town government for more than 20 years, is skeptical. It's not necessarily a bad thing that the town's center isn't downtown, he said. He was apprehensive when the Town Council agreed this year to spend $68,000 for planning firms to conduct a market analysis and create a plan to develop a stretch roughly a mile long along Main Street and Garner Road.
But towns like Garner need a downtown focal point, said Eric Bosman, a planner with Urban Collage, an Atlanta firm hired by the town.
"As you zoom down 70, you see restaurants and developments that could be anywhere," Bosman said. "They don't necessarily signify the heart or soul of Garner, North Carolina."
The plan, which is expected to wrap up early next year, calls for a downtown "anchor" - maybe a town hall, community center or YMCA. It also says the town should play off the popular Garner Historic Auditorium and Garner Baseball Inc. youth league to create cultural and sports districts in the North Garner area near downtown that could be big draws for visitors.
The mayor said he wants to keep tradition in mind. And he worries about uprooting elderly property owners in the area.
William Williams, 74, and his wife, Zelma, live near Montague Street, which the plan says could be a good spot for a downtown anchor and green space where the town could hold concerts and activities. Williams said he has heard for years about plans to revamp the area.
And he might be willing to sell. "If the money's right and I could find me a house with no yard and no steps or stairs - yeah," he said.
In fact, the lifelong Garner resident said, it would be good to bring some life to the neighborhood. He said the town has neglected the area.
"It sounds like it would be bringing Garner back to Garner, really," he said.
