Would it have more libraries? More walking trails? State-of-the-art buildings fronted by bustling sidewalks, or theaters packed with spectators?
These are the questions city leaders and civic activists have been pondering for months while several privately commissioned feasibility studies have been taking place.
The first of those studies - looking at the need for a new regional arena - was unveiled Friday and recommended building an $89 million coliseum on River Watch Parkway. Future studies, one considering a performing arts center and another looking at convention and exhibition needs, are expected to be presented in coming weeks.
Although each study will make recommendations for Augusta's future development, ultimately it will be up to residents to decide whether the city should rebuild its aging infrastructure and replace it with shiny new versions of what - for now - are still visions.
A privately commissioned study that went public Friday suggests replacing downtown's 22-year-old civic center with a 12,000-seat regional arena at the Interstate 20 and River Watch Parkway corridor. The arena would be able to attract spectators and entertainers from across the region and would be big enough to accommodate top-name acts, according to consultants who presented the plan to a chamber full of interested onlookers at the municipal building.
Detailed plans for the proposed coliseum say it could be built without a tax increase and could be operated at a profit to the city.
Even more exciting for some city leaders is what could become of the existing Seventh Street civic center site, if it is abandoned: Consultants say they envision a central city complex in the downtown square, complete with government offices surrounded by residential neighborhoods and space for cultural activities.
"We think it's a critical part of the city," said John Shreve, a principal with HOK Sport+Venue+Event, the engineering firm that helped create the coliseum study.
A new convention and exhibition center.
THE MOST PRESSING capital improvement need in government now, officials say, is finding a place to put city offices once they are displaced by a new courts complex at the site of the Greene Street municipal building.
The judicial complex will house all court functions, including Superior, State, Civil, Magistrate, Probate and Juvenile courts and the clerks' offices.
City employees now working in the building, including the Finance Department, information technology offices, the Human Resources Department and the offices of the mayor and city administrator, will have to relocate.
Coliseum consultants say that when they began studying Augusta's capital needs, city leaders had just decided to renovate the Greene Street Municipal Building in lieu of building a new courts complex.
The new study recommends building a 115,000-square-foot government campus with a parking deck on the site of the existing civic center.
Consultants envision the government campus as a series of low-rise, two-story brick buildings that could be built as a public plaza. Incorporated into that design would be green spaces, pedestrian corridors and other public buildings, such as a library, the chamber of commerce and possibly a performing arts center.
To see what's wrong with downtown's existing civic center, "all you have to do is look at what's not around that building," said Steve Stern, the chief executive officer of ScheerGame Sports Development LLC, which conducted the privately commissioned study.
Mr. Stern has described the civic center as "an arena in a sea of parking." He said that design has created a barrier between the rest of downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods.
A public plaza at the civic center site could change that, he says. By developing along Eighth and Sixth streets, the Laney-Walker neighborhood and nearby medical district could be connected to Broad Street and development along the Savannah River, consultants said, making Walton Way "the 'front door' of downtown."
A plaza also would create economic corridors along streets that run north and south, as opposed to the current corridors - Greene, Broad and Reynolds streets - which run east and west.
"This will be a great economic boon to downtown," said Lowell Greenbaum, a member of the Greater Augusta Arts Council. The arts council recently completed its own study for a proposed performing arts center, which will be made public in coming weeks.
According to an arts council announcement, the study recommends building a performing arts facility downtown that includes a 400-seat theater and a 2,000-seat theater.
"It gives additional reasons why industry can come to Augusta - so their employees can enjoy in music and ballet and show entertainment," Mr. Greenbaum said. "We want to keep the lights on as many nights as possible."
The $200,000 feasibility study was commissioned and funded by two tenants of the Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center: Frank Lawrence, the owner of the Augusta Stallions, and William S. Morris III, the chairman of the Augusta Futurity and the National Barrel Horse Association. Mr. Morris also is the chairman and chief executive officer of Morris Communications Co., the parent company of The Augusta Chronicle.
EVERY YEAR about this time, Augusta commissioners tackle the city budget - spending most of their time trying to balance the general fund, which pays for the day-to-day operations of local government. Commissioners have said they plan to approve a balanced budget by the end of this month, which would be about a month earlier than in previous years.
But once the general fund is balanced, the commissioners' job will not be over. Mr. Kolb will turn elected officials' attention to long-range planning, including a capital improvement plan that involves many of the projects being considered by the private studies.
Through a fifth renewal of the city's 1-cent, special purpose local option sales tax, hundreds of millions of dollars in projects could be funded without increasing taxes, Mr. Kolb said.
If voters approve extending the tax for another 10 years, it would provide more than $300 million in funding for capital projects, such as a library, a convention center or a performing arts center, and would do so without any additional burden on taxpayers.
Only consolidated governments in Georgia - such as Augusta-Richmond County - are permitted to collect special purpose sales taxes for more than five years.
"People say why should we be consolidated? This is one reason," Commissioner Steve Shepard said. He said the sales tax extension is "the out-of-the-box idea" that makes the coliseum a "sound proposal."
With public dollars in place, private contributions and state matches could come forward to provide additional funding, officials said.
A referendum to extend the sales tax could go before voters as early as next year.
Until then, Mr. Kolb expects elected officials to take the building plans out into the community, to "build a consensus on what that capital improvement program should be."
"The commission has got to develop a process by which they get community involvement and ideas on what should be on SPLOST V," he said. "It cannot be done without the community's support."
Reach Heidi Coryell Williams at (706) 823-3215 or heidi.williams@augustachronicle.com.
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