Signature Community Program

Newton County and the City of Covington were chosen as one of five communities out of 56 applicants to participate as inaugural members of DCA's Signature Community Program.

The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) number one customer is Georgia's Communities and DCA provides a broad array of community improvement programs for Georgia's Communities.  The Georgia Signature Community Program is designed to target all of DCA's tools to maximum advantage for deserving communities.

The Signature Community Program is intended to "raise the bar," helping communities reach ever higher levels of community achievement and quality of life for their citizens.  The program is limited to communities that are serious about improving local quality of life through effective planning, implementation and taking a comprehensive approach to addressing community improvement issues.

The Signature Community initiative, proposed by the City of Covington and the Newton County Board of Commissioners, is the implementation of the recommendations from the recent Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) Highway 278 Corridor Study. 

Benefits of Participation in the Signature Community Program:

• Customized technical assistance to achieve key initiatives (i.e., vision elements, goals and/or implementation activities) selected from the local comprehensive plan.

• Access to a Signature Community grant.  The Signature Community Program is not, however, simply a grant program; rather, a community improvement program to implement ideally a single or several related Plan initiatives.

• Assistance in identifying other financial resources for implementing the identified initiatives.

• Statewide recognition.

For more detailed information on Signature Communities click here.

The Center for Community Preservation and Planning will support the County and City during the duration of this project so please contact us if you need additional information.