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The Greensboro City Council and Guilford County Board of Commissioners plan to adopt a joint development guide for downtown Greensboro, their leaders said Monday.

In an unusual gesture of cooperation, Mayor Yvonne Johnson and Melvin “Skip” Alston, chairman of the county Board of Commissioners, said they would urge their boards to kick off the process within 30 days.

The community development group Action Greensboro has volunteered to pay $150,000 for the study.

Johnson said she’d like to see a plan that would guide downtown development adopted by the end of 2009.

The two officials made the announcement before a meeting of Action Greensboro volunteers at the West Market Street United Methodist Church where Action Greensboro also presented a new work plan.

April Harris, Action Greensboro’s executive director, and hundreds of volunteers began writing the long-term plan last year when the economy began its descent into recession.

Their job — to push Greensboro’s economy to new heights — instead became a balance between helping local businesses and workers survive while preparing the city for a day when the economy improves.

Action Greensboro believes it has struck a balance with its Phase II report.

The volunteers have written a plan that emphasizes immediate job training, for example, and backs away from support for the arts in this
economy.

“We really see this as a work in progress,” Harris said.

The community development group was created in 2001 by the city’s top six private, non-profit foundations in reaction to the stark economic conditions left behind by textile layoffs and recession.

The first few years were full of work. Action Greensboro initiatives included:

* working to improve business’ support of public schools.

* helping the city’s public universities kick-start Gateway University Research Park.

* building a minor-league baseball stadium and a city park downtown.

Action Greensboro’s leaders initially intended to disband and let others take over. But they have since felt the need to keep working.

Action Greensboro’s new plan stresses four priorities: public schools, what it calls “the heart of Greensboro,” higher education and transportation.

The new plan involves pairing community partners and finding quick sources of money, along with keeping long-term priorities consistent.

It wasn’t easy to wrap up the plan, said Susan Schwartz, executive director of the Cemala Foundation, because key groups saw major leaders come and go.

Maurice “Mo” Green, Guilford County Schools superintendent; Stanley Battle, chancellor of NC A&T; and Linda Brady, chancellor of UNCG, are all relatively new to their jobs, and that slowed the process.

But “we felt like if we kept waiting for the plan to be perfect ... we would never have anything,” Schwartz said.

Under Phase II, corporate and foundation dollars, combined with volunteers and government initiatives, could have an impact on the city even amid a recession with higher unemployment.

Schwartz and Harris said volunteers will now begin to find money, staff and creative ideas to achieve Action Greensboro’s goals, she said.

“The most important thing,” according to the report, “is that Greensboro does not lose ground in this recession and that we move forward as much as we can.”

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com