THOMASVILLE — The Florida firm developing a comprehensive plan for the City of Thomasville colors outside the lines — “all over the place.”

So said Rick Hall, an engineer with the Miami, Florida, firm of Dover, Kohl and Partners, who addressed about 70 residents gathered at City Hall at the end of the first day of planning and citywide workshops.

The company “designs in public” through the United States and abroad, said Jason King, senior project director.

“We’re adding our expertise to your ideas,” he told citizens.

Pointing out the city’s outstanding “Main Street,” trails and other features, King said a comp plans ties everything together and ensures public policy, and that the community will be what the citizenry wants.

The project will be completed in summer 2018. 

“We’ll talk about the future just one year from now,” King said.

“Broad Street alone is like the all-American Main Street. … I can’t believe this was not 100 years ago,” King said, pointing to a current photo of downtown and the main brick thoroughfare.

The comp plan, King said, will be made up of what the town should look like a generation from now, next year and tomorrow.

Showing maps of the Thomasville downtown district and New Orleans’ French Quarter, King said the two are about the same size.

Addressing economic aspects of the comp plan, Shaun Bourgeois said “a positive city” grows economically, resulting in jobs, increased real estate sales and a larger tax base, among other economic boosts.

Today, he said, 86 percent of the Thomasville population makes $75,000 or less annually. The greatest percentage of the population — 68.9 percent — is between ages 60 and 84.

Thomasville is not New York City, but it must respond to trends in the wider world, Bourgeois said.

Addressing traffic, Hall said it was in the 1930s and ‘40s that the American standard was set for everyone to have an automobile.

The speed limit should be 25 miles per hour in areas such as downtown, he said. Hall added. “If you don’t’ drop the speed, pedestrians won’t visit,” he said.

“Right now, your beating the heck out of Tallahassee by having such a wonderful downtown,” Hall said.

 Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820