A downtown master plan was discussed at a recent meeting of the Dillon City Council.
“Downtown Coordinator, Bridget Thornton, stated the City of Dillon was awarded a Hometown Grant for $25,0000 to do a downtown master plan. She asked if anyone had toured downtown Lumberton, N.C. over the last five years to see how it has changed. She then introduced Jason Epley of Benchmark Planning,” according to the Dillon City Council meeting.
“Epley stated he has been working for over 20 years in Downtown Development. His company, Benchmark Planning, has been around since 1992, and he has been President since 2004. He went on to say that having a vision for the future is nice but the most important thing is to have road map and an action plan. This Master Plan gives leverage on making Dillon better. Dillon needs a meaningful plan, something that is based on good research and input from you so that it can be implemented. The purpose is to get out of the small things and work toward a goal. He said he was excited about working with Dillon. Councilmember Jay David stated that we have a lot of traffic in Dillon. Epley responded with his first his first observation, which was that you couldn’t cross the road without looking. It is good to have traffic. Dillon has a lot of good things going. City Manager Glen Wagner met with Stephanie Mitchell, Rhett Thompkins, and Bridget Thornton, and they would all like to do this Master Plan. Wagner asked, ‘Is this something that council would like to do?’ It will cost the City about $5,000 plus the $25,000 grant, which will equal $30,000. Councilmember Johnny Eller asked what the timeline is. Epley stated that the timeline is around nine months. He said the meetings will start around January 2020. He went over the three phases…Phase One – Downtown Assessment, Phase Two – Downtown Concepts Review, and Phase Three – Downtown Master Plan Development. The end result will be a Master Plan that is realistic and something that can be implemented.”