Input requested from China Grove residents
Published 12:03 am Thursday, July 27, 2023
CHINA GROVE — China Grove officials are seeking input from the community through online surveys regarding an open alcohol consumption downtown and possible programming for the parks and recreation department.
Social districts, or designated portions of a town’s commercial area, permit open containers of alcoholic beverages purchased from businesses in the zone. They were created through a North Carolina state bill and have been enacted in places like Salisbury, Mooresville and Kannapolis.
“Back in June, we presented the council with all the administrative requirements and what it takes for a permitted ABC permittee to participate and sell these things,” Town Manager Franklin Gover said. “They sent us back to get public input, gauge participation, public sentiment and interest.”
With the survey, Gover and his team hope to determine how China Grove residents and business owners feel about the proposed social district.
“The concerns are kind of focused around public intoxication, noise, litter and things like that,” Gover said.
Meanwhile, business owners are attracted to the idea of a plan to get more foot traffic downtown.
“The business owners are in support of it and see it as an economic draw,” Gover said. “It is another amenity or feature that could help people come enjoy downtown, eat and shop. It’s something to bring people back downtown and walk. That is what they are looking for.”
As of Wednesday, there had been 114 responses to the survey.
“That is pretty good for a China Grove survey,” Gover said. “We have had a lot of interest in that.”
The town also hosted an “office hours” style meeting on Tuesday to allow residents and business owners to express their views in person.
“The meeting was pretty well attended,” Gover said. “It was primarily by downtown business owners, but there was a handful of residents in attendance.”
The survey will remain active until next week.
“We plan to have all that calculated and tabulated for next Wednesday’s council meeting,” Gover said.
China Grove officials typically hold their meetings on the first Tuesday of every month, but with National Night Out taking place on Tuesday, the meeting was bumped to Wednesday at Town Hall. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m.
The survey is available at https://forms.gle/5xPXWt3deqBMUPZW6.
Expanding activities for residents
The other survey that China Grove has publicized concerns activities and programming by the town’s parks and recreation department.
“This year, the town council approved a programming budget,” Gover said. “This is the first time that I know of, at least in recent history, that China Grove is offering parks and rec programming.”
China Grove Event Coordinator Jill Sellers said that the other survey “starting from scratch” to gauge public opinion.
“We want to know what people are interested in,” Sellers said. “Parks and rec programming is so vast that it is kind of hard to start from scratch.”
Sellers said they want to find out if people would be interested in craft classes or fitness classes. Age ranges are of interest, too.
“Are there more senior citizens looking for programs?” Sellers said. “Are kids looking for programs? Are parents looking for kids programs? We are really just wanting to throw the ball out there to see what people would like to see.”
Recreational activities for families could be a one-time thing or series-based, seasonal opportunities.
Sellers said the urgency for the social district survey outweighs that of the parks and recreation survey, which is still in its preliminary stages.
“I am playing it by ear to see what kind of responses we get,” Sellers said. “By the end of August, we would like to take the input and start planning some programs.”
The parks and reaction programming survey is available at
