Editor’s note: This is the first of a series evaluating the Downtown DeKalb Revitalization Project.

If DeKalb’s downtown is rebuilt, and no one knows or cares, will they come? Students and residents must have input for the Revitalization Project to succeed.

In smaller, rural American communities with fewer than 100,000 residents, a steady 30-year flight of retail businesses and markets – often the hub of activity that brings members of an area together – has led to the disintegration of traditional town centers.

To stem the tide, costly downtown revitalization projects have picked up steam in the past decade. A safe, attractive and useful downtown will draw new homeowners and apartment dwellers, businesses and tourists to the area, so the thinking goes.

Back in February, the DeKalb City Council unanimously approved a plan – the first since the 1960s – to revitalize its’ own downtown area. The ambitious proposal aims to spruce up older areas while fostering smarter, denser and more environmentally sustainable residential development as the city is expected to grow to more than 50,000 residents by 2010.

An early goal of the plan is to acquire strategic parcels of land for redevelopment into more economically viable parcels. Already, a $1 million bond anticipation note has been issued to purchase such property and set things into motion.

Additional funds will be needed for city street and area landscape improvements. To pay for these and other big-ticket items, changes to DeKalb’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Districts is being considered.

The prevailing theme of successful plans across the country is sustained, positive communication between all parties involved. Repeated tapping into market forces (community needs, desires, support of the project and feelings residents have about their downtown) is crucial.

At the outset, planning committees must ensure they’re providing what the community needs (not what planners want). But they need to reach out and keep the communication going during implementation as well.

DeKalb City Manager Mark Biernacki points to the area of communication as an example of what makes this revitalization plan different.

“This truly is a plan that is based on community input,” Biernacki said.

For example, he says, ReNew DeKalb, initially a task force created by the city that transitioned into a nonprofit development corporation, held open houses and monthly morning Rise and Revitalize Meetings. The 15-20 member group is said to represent a cross section of the community.

Now actively engaged in the plan’s implementation according to the city manager, late last year ReNew DeKalb found its community responsiveness efforts tested.

Tom Smith, owner of The Confectionery on Second Street, was not pleased with the group’s initial plans for a downtown parking lot and led a successful petition drive against it.

“They wanted to put a park in there,” Smith said. “And I said ‘No, that’s the best parking lot in town; you can’t do that.'” The main problem, according to Smith and 2,000 other petitioners, was that planners went ahead with the project without talking to downtown merchants.

“We weren’t involved in the process,” he said.

Responding to the slight, the city engineer and ReNew DeKalb’s Jennifer Gross met with Smith and fellow downtown merchants. The once disgruntled businessman said he and others in the area are pleased – planners are now very responsive to the merchants and to the community.

“They’re doing some good things,” Smith said.

Biernacki agrees that ReNew DeKalb has done a good job of seeking input from a variety of sources throughout the community.

“There really is a lot of good give and take based on opinions expressed,” Biernacki said.

Though getting off to a bumpy start, the city now understands how imperative it is for planners and community to keep the conversation going for years to come.

While a lot of miscellaneous projects attached to the revitalization have gotten off the ground this past calendar year, the big ones are slated to kick off next year. Now might be a good time for us to pay attention – and even play a vocal role – in those big things to come.