The Dalton Gardens City Planning Commission is trying to develop an identity for the community, commercial district and city of Dalton Gardens.

Commissioners are in the early phases of concept development for a look and brand for the city. A final concept could guide ordinances or visual standards in Dalton Gardens. Visual standards would seek to establish a sense of place, connection and recognition for residents.

Concepts are in early phases, with some ambiguity, but the planning commission considers it a priority.

“It’s kind of a first shot over the bow,” city clerk and treasurer Teresa Janzen said Thursday, during a city planning meeting. “We’ve talked a few times about what is the identity of the commercial corridor going to be? Wouldn’t it be nice if when you went down our section of Government Way you went, ‘Oh we’ve entered Dalton Gardens.'”

If a final concept is established, it would be used to guide ordinances for city lights, landscaping or parking spaces to create a unified look within the city.

In previous meetings, some possible themes have been discussed, like plays on the word garden of Dalton Gardens, which could translate into hanging flower baskets from lampposts in the commercial corridor.

“It’s untapped potential for our identity, and to make people feel like they’ve come home,” Janzen said. “When they drive into Dalton and they feel home.”

The hope would be to emulate some inspirational cities. Breckenridge, Colo., for example, has roundabouts, plants, grass and art as major elements in its city corridor, where crowds of people walk through the streets.

The goals of beautifying Dalton Gardens and creating an identity are fairly clear, but the steps to get to that place, and what “city identity” means is still a little unclear.

“Where do we start?” planning commission chairman Mike Becker said.

City staff can begin to apply for grants for small town-style city improvements, Janzen said, if the city leadership is able to establish plans and infrastructure for the concepts.

“If we start with creating more requirements, the commercial district owners are not going to be in our corner,” Becker said.

The city could opt to conduct a city beautification project along its business corridor, or update city code to include new visual standards, or use a combination of those tools.

Updating city code would put the responsibility and cost of improvements on developers or business owners, while a beautification project could be a one-time cost covered through fundraising or other means.

In order to receive, or even apply for grants, the city has to have an established plan and clear path for implementation, which they have not yet created.

To proceed, Janzen recommended planning commissioners meet in a workshop with City Council members to build concrete plans to move forward.

In other news, Dalton Gardens staff have been able to fill an open position for a code enforcement officer.

The new addition to the team, Mike Hollis, is retired from law enforcement and is contracting with the city to begin chiseling through a backlog of code violations.

Because Dalton Gardens has not had a code enforcement officer in the position for some time, there are multiple violation referrals that Hollis has begun to address in the roughly two weeks since his hiring.

Hollis has already jumped in with both feet, Janzen said, and the city staff is excited to have him on board.

Hollis has the personality of an educator, and should be both helpful and calm delivering city code violations to residents, she said. He has already categorized the backlog of code violations which will require investigation, and which can be taken care of with simple site visits, to streamline his approach and efficiently address complaints.