Hundreds Participate in Envision Montgomery 2040 Summit

Five hundred participants gathered at the ASU Acadome Thursday night.

“There have been some individual plans, and this is a time to put it all together in one place, one comprehensive plan and be able to reach as many people as we can,” said Mayor Todd Strange.

They got to discuss their ideas to better Montgomery. For mom Adiliah Smith, she has her own concerns.

“Number one thing on my mind right now is education, behind that is parks and rec. And then economic development especially in District Four where I live. We definitely need more opportunities especially for retail. We’ve got a lot of great factories and distribution centers. However, we definitely need retail. We shouldn’t have to go across town to get what we need,” said Smith.

Others say they are focused on crime.

“So many crime activities going on recently in our Ridgecrest neighborhood. We need this to help us clean up and for the betterment of our community and get more programs for our youth and involve them from all walks of life,” said Dorothy Robertson.

Still others want to make sure the city is preserving its past.

“So far I’ve noticed that a lot of people care about the history of Montgomery. As far as the vision for the future, a lot of people want to see that history is preserved. And they want to see a lot of the areas, as well as the city, grow. So maintaining what has already lead to the success of the city as well as looking forward to the new things we can bring in to make the city better,” said group facilitator Aaron Norris.

The ideas gathered will be analyzed by the planning team and potentially implemented at the time the funding is available throughout the coming years.