By Mark Woolsey

An April 28 meeting will kick off a process leading to the expansion and reimagining of Smyrna’s downtown area.

The two-hour session at the outset of Smyrna Downtown Redevelopment will allow residents to provide input on possible uses for Smyrna First Baptist Church and its nine-acre property. The church agreed to sell the property to city officials for $15.8 million in a process brokered through the city’s Downtown Development Authority. The sale closed at the end of 2024.

As part of the deal, the church will continue to use the property for the next two years under a lease agreement with city officials, eventually moving to a nearby 5.5-acre property off Atlanta Road.

Now the work begins, deciding how best to utilize the land at the south fringe of the downtown area.

“We want to talk to the community about what they want to see, whether it be housing, restaurants, retail, parks, green space, whatever the case may be, “ said Andrea Worthy, Economic Development Director for the city.

She said the first meeting will be a “visioning” session augmented by the results of an online survey that, at the end of last week, had drawn more than 800 individual responses.

City officials say the development process is actually three-pointed. In addition to accepting suggestions on the use of the church property, input will be sought on how walking, biking, and driving connectivity can be improved in downtown at large and on a fresh vision of what downtown Smyrna can look like in 10 years.

“This is a rare opportunity to add additional amenities to downtown Smyrna for our residents and visitors to enjoy,” said Mayor Derek Norton in an email, calling it “a remarkable opportunity that any mid-sized city in America would welcome.”

Worthy says a phase two meeting and process will involve the city’s consultant, planning and urban design firm MKSK, developing site concepts to bring back to the community for both in-person (meeting) and online feedback.  She says the consultant will then come up with a preferred concept that will be aired in a third meeting sometime in the fall.

The city council would then sign off on a finalized plan and city officials would seek a developer to partner with to bring it into being.

“Smyrna was one of the first downtowns to give this kind of mixed-use development,” said Worthy. She says the years since Market Village was finished, mixed-used projects of that sort have “evolved into something else,” and that an updating is in order.

The visioning session is set for 5:30-7:30 p.m. April 28 at the Smyrna Community Center, 1250 Powder Springs St.