Bainbridge Tomorrow is a Living Plan
The Bainbridge Tomorrow 2025-2050 Comprehensive Plan is a living document intended to provide documentation of where the city is and what the city wants to be in the future. The adoption of the plan is a milestone report in a continuing discussion regarding the ongoing evolution of the City of Bainbridge and its place in the region, the State of Georgia, and the nation.
Much of the Comprehensive Plan documents from 2020, 2015, and 2010 is carried forward with the addition of new information and a hearty series of public meetings to address current and future concerns. The plan update process has added elements regarding the extension of Broadband, access to housing and health care, and a basic capital improvements program to prepare the city for future challenges and responsible decisions.
The city’s comprehensive plan provides public policy guidance for the city regarding economic development, land use, transportation, and access to jobs, healthcare, housing, and quality of life. The plan directly establishes priorities for public actions and direction for private-sector investors and decisionmakers that work within the city. The plan also provides residents, homeowners, and business owners with a guide to the city’s priorities. The plan also calls attention to the need for transparency and better information in making public decisions that may need deeper investigation regarding potential impacts on the community’s culture and livability.
The plan provides illustrations, maps, and pictures to assist city officials, residents, community groups, investors, and stakeholders to understand and clarify concepts and potential intended and unintended results of city and developer actions and priorities. Above all, the plan provides ideas and options for placemaking to ensure that the city achieves desirable results through public actions and decisions.
Chapters 1through 5 provide an overview of the current conditions regarding where Bainbridge is today and the community engagement process to determine community vision, goals, needs, and opportunities, including Broadband access.
Chapters 6 and 7 discuss economic development and land use including programs to energize job creation and residential livability. Chapter 8 has traditionally been a discussion regarding streets, automobile parking, and other modes of access. However, attention to mobility for pedestrians, bicyclists, and wayfinding have received added importance. Chapters 9 and 10 expand the discussion of access to housing and health care (including recreation and cultural resources).
Chapter 11provides a toolbox of implementation resources such as tactical planning andthe framework of sustainable urban design, as well as permitting and zoning updates that meet 21st Century regulatory models. The city is also introduced to planning for potential adaptation of a form-based code that incorporates principles of smart growth, new urbanism, and a unified development ordinance to address all scales of design and integrate a full range of environmental techniques based on known patterns of development. The toolbox is intended to allow the successful transition from rural to urban development created by the importance of the city in the setting of Decatur County and Southwest Georgia.
The Community Work Program in Chapter 12 details to Report of Accomplishments from the 2020 Comprehensive Plan and outlines a list of potential projects for planning, development, and implementation between 2025 and 2030. Some additional desirable projects may be identified as aspirational objectives of the plan albeit not within the current estimated resources of the city. A sample Capital Improvements Plan is also presented to assist the city on making decisions regarding impact fees or a special purpose local option sales tax proposal.
Appendices include a review of plan and community engagement resources, documented community involvement, and a glossary of planning terms.
The Bainbridge Tomorrow 2025-2030 Comprehensive Plan attempts to integrate goals and recommendations from the community engagement process. It also acknowledges the many other plans and decisions made by local, regional, state and national public entities, private investors, non-profits, and non-government organizations that may affect residents, businesses, visitors, and the physical and economic structure of the city. The Comprehensive Plan is not a perfect instrument but is intended to serve as a basis for comparison and require interactions to plans provided by others. The plan is meant to be interpreted by City Council, and legal counsel, with advice as needed from Community Development, other departments, and outside agencies or consultants as needed to determine city policy.