Members of the Ellijay Downtown Development Authority (DDA) were recently updated on a project being led by participants in a Gilmer Chamber leadership program.
The focus of the early-stage project is improving roadside wayfinding signage around the county, Robert Ferguson, a member of the most recent Leadership Gilmer class, explained to DDA members during a workshop that preceded their December meeting at City Hall.
Giving a Powerpoint presentation, Ferguson noted that signage in Gilmer County for attractions and different areas, including Ellijay and East Ellijay, isn’t always easy to notice or understand. Better signage, which may be color-coordinated, would help visitors find such attractions as apple houses, vineyards and Ellijay’s historic downtown, he added.
“The purpose is to establish a cohesive wayfinding signage plan that would allow visitors to easily navigate their way through the two cities and Gilmer County,” Ferguson said. “Nothing was really finished in our class. We just had ideas and wanted to get the conversation going in our community. This is the first time we’re getting that conversation going.”
Ferguson said the class has reviewed a lot of signs from all over Georgia, and some good examples of coordinated wayfinding signage are in Dahlonega.
“We could go from this to this,” he said when showing a photo of different shaped and colored signs grouped along Highway 515, followed by a photo of a wayfinding display in Dahlonega with multiple, removable signs.
“(It’s) more professional and brings everything together. (You could have a) sign with downtown Ellijay and the next sign or two would (get) them to downtown. As they got closer, they would be able to find the different places instead of driving around and looking at their phones,” Ferguson said.
Bryan Staggs, also of the Leadership Gilmer class, said he’s an example of how visitors don’t always know the difference between Ellijay and East Ellijay.
“I’ve been here almost seven years now, but we never came past dysfunction junction (in East Ellijay) because we didn’t know downtown Ellijay existed. We’d been going to Blue Ridge for years, and I just thought Ellijay was Walmart, Lowe’s and right along 515,” he said.
Ferguson said improving wayfinding signage is a long-term project that will need to be a team effort. Community input is also needed, he added.
Macon, Augusta and smaller towns have hired third-party consultants to put together plans and present them to the community for questions, Ferguson said.
“We would be able to navigate permitting, DOT communication, etc., much more easily,” he added.
A new signage plan would also require funding from the county and two cities. Grants are available through the state and GDOT, while private funding could also be used, Ferguson noted.
Another source of possible funding, which is currently unavailable, would result if the hotel-motel tax is ever raised.
Ellijay’s current hotel-motel tax rate is 5 percent, and its city council is currently exploring whether or not to raise the tax paid by anyone staying at a hotel, motel or short-term rental. Raising it to 6, 7 or 8 percent would open up funding for tourism product development (TPD) projects.
Gilmer Chamber President and CEO Jennifer Grimmer told those in attendance that TPD projects include signage, as well as parking, beautification, parks and other recreational improvements.
“(TPD is) basically anything that enhances the quality of the visitor experience, which 100 percent of the time pretty much, (also) enhances the quality of life of people that live here,” she added.
A resolution expressing the DDA’s support of the Ellijay City Council increasing the hotel-motel tax to 8 percent was passed by the DDA during a meeting that followed the workshop presentation.
“We don’t have the authority to do anything beyond that. We would like to use our position to say, ‘We support this and see the good it can do,’ but it’s in the city council’s hands,” said DDA Chairman Reece Sanford.