FOLEY – Changes for Foley’s century-old downtown area could include musicians playing in pocket parks and murals along a walkway under plans being prepared for the area.

Envision Downtown Foley is a program intended to guide ways to revive and improve the city center as a place to enjoy, visit, work and live, Darrelyn Dunmore, Foley Main Street executive director, said. She said many residents and business owners want a plan for the future of downtown Foley.

“The one thing I've been hearing over and over again, is what direction are we going and who exactly are we trying to attract? Then people want to know are there any plans for any of the city properties,” Dunmore said.

“People want to know what we are going to be when we grow up. We have the basics, but people just want more detail, and they want a guide on what they can use, first of all, for the building owners to recruit people,” Dunmore added.

Main Street Foley and the city are working with Downtown Professional Network of Tennessee to prepare the program, Dunmore said.

On Tuesday, April 5, Foley Main Street concluded a survey as part of the city’s plan for the downtown area. The results of the survey will be revealed during Vision Week, planned for April 25 through 28. On April 25, the city will hold a meeting at the Civic Center to discuss plans for downtown. On April 28, supporters will hold an open house to unveil some proposed plans.

“They'll have all the different design ideas, all the fonts, all over the walls,” Dunmore said. “People can walk around to discuss them and say what they like and don’t like.”

Some proposals include making the alley between West Laurel Avenue and Jessamine Street into a public space. The alley, located behind the Magnolia Hotel would include murals and other artworks on the walls and a small park area on property donated by CenturyLink.

“We're going to make a walkway out of that and we're working on a naming the alley right now,” Dunmore said. “But also doing that as a historic walk into the alley and have murals painted all along that brick wall on the side are fastened to the brick walls, the history of Foley. The pictures will start in black and white. And then as we get closer to the alley, they'll go into full color. And then they'll walk out into the alley. It's a big project. It's much bigger than any other alley project I've seen or heard, but we're going to have fun doing it.”

She said the alley project is planned for the spring of 2023.

During meetings to discuss downtown, many supporters said the area needs to keep its unique atmosphere and feeling, Dunmore said. She said the city has a “third-dimension,” unlike some areas developed to attract visitors.

“They love coming up to Foley where it's more authentic and more real. There’s a park to walk around. You know they like the quirkiness, that it's not all expensive. They liked the affordability of it,” Dunmore said.

She said that as the city grows, downtown can be an asset to attract professionals.

“We also realized that we have the medical center that's getting ready to do the huge expansion,” Dunmore said. “We have a lot of professional medical people that we want to have them have a downtown that they would like, that they would want to see, that they would want their doctors to move to Foley, so that they would be happy to come to town.”

In addition to the survey, which had about 900 responses as of March 31, planners have also looked at studies and plans prepared in the past for Foley.

“They've been collecting all sorts of information from me about comp plans, overlay plans, our codes, any ideas that have been floated around in the past,” Dunmore said. “I even found an old study, I think was back from about 1999 and sent that to them. So, they've been doing a lot of homework on the historic district and what the city has done before too because this plan will just be an overlay on top of what the city has already done.”

Main Street Foley is part of the national Main Street America program, which was established to revitalize communities around the country. Foley is the only Baldwin County city in the Main Street program, according to program reports.

Dunmore said Foley applied to the program because officials and residents realized the city’s assets could be improved.

“That's why we were accepted into the Main Street program. Main Street, our program, the national program is for main streets that need work,” she said. “So, we admit openly that we are not to where we would like to be. That's what this whole process has been with the Main Street but we went to branding to get our downtown Foley logo and where the Gulf Coast begins our tagline.”