Area 8 of 8 · Commitments 8.1–8.6
Business, Downtown, and I-75
Interstate access gets you on a list. The drive-in decides.
The problem
Badcock. Rite Aid. KFC. The bakeries. The bars. Employment in Turner County fell 2.25% from 2023 to 2024. Some of those closures had nothing to do with us — when a chain files bankruptcy up north, Ashburn doesn't get a vote. But some of them did. And this city has never sat down and worked out which is which.
What the city actually controls
Permitting speed, code enforcement, downtown appearance, utility reliability, the development authority, and whether anybody at City Hall ever asks a business owner how it's going.
For a town on an interstate, appearance is economic development infrastructure. The parks and the streets are not extras we get to after the jobs come. They are the reason the jobs come.
The commitments
8.1 – 8.6
Every one with a how attached, a label saying who has to agree, and where it applies, something countable you can hold me to.
8.1
Reinstate Ashburn's Development Authority
This is the highest-leverage item in the entire plan, so it goes first. A city development authority gives Ashburn tools it does not currently have for property, financing, and recruitment. It is separate from the county authority. Without it, most of the downtown and housing work below has no vehicle.
- What it unlocks
- Downtown facade work, property assembly, financing tools, and serious recruitment. Nearly everything else in this pillar depends on it.
- Hold me to this
- Reinstatement brought to council within 180 days.
First yearNeeds a council vote8.2
Ask the Ones Who Left Why
Contact owners who closed or left in recent years and ask them directly. Publish what we learn.
- What it unlocks
- The first honest list of what this city does to businesses that it can actually change.
- Hold me to this
- Interviews conducted and findings published within 180 days.
First 90 daysI can do this alone8.3
Talk to the Ones Still Here
A standing quarterly conversation with local owners about permitting, utilities, code, and whatever else the city puts in their way. Then fix what's within city authority.
- Hold me to this
- Four conversations a year, every year.
First 90 daysI can do this alone8.4
Put Teeth in our Ordinances
Review what's on the books against what other Georgia cities our size use, and bring changes that let us actually act on derelict property, recruitment, and investment.
- What it unlocks
- The legal authority behind the derelict property and downtown work. Without it those are requests, not tools.
- Hold me to this
- Review completed and recommendations to council by year three.
Years 2–4Needs a council vote8.5
The Exit and Downtown Are One Problem
What a stranger sees coming off I-75 and what they find when they get downtown is the same judgment, formed in about four minutes. Assess both: signage, lighting, road condition, vacant property, wayfinding. Sort what's city, GDOT, county, or private, with costs and a fix order. And pull our actual traffic counts from GDOT and publish them, because nobody local has that number in hand.
- What it unlocks
- A costed, sequenced list — and a traffic number we can put in front of any company considering us.
First yearNeeds a partner8.6
Bring Downtown Back
Downtown is not just where businesses go. It's the room this town gathers in, and right now there isn't much reason to be there. Storefront facades, lighting, benches and shade, wayfinding, local art in empty windows instead of paper, and a standing event that gives people a reason to come on a weekend.
- Hold me to this
- A funded facade or lighting program underway by year five.
Years 5+Needs a council vote
52 commitments across 8 areas.