Woodstock, GA (February 3, 2025) – On Friday, January 31st, 2025, Woodstock Mayor Michael Caldwell delivered his 2025 State of the City address to a sold-out crowd at Woodstock City Church. Mayor Caldwell noted that the event, presented by IN WDSTK, took place in the room that serves as his family’s voting precinct.
Mayor Caldwell began the address by sharing that the Metro Atlanta Chamber is underway on a ‘Downtown Reimagined’ campaign saying, “At the Chamber’s annual meeting, they highlighted the importance of transforming the City of Atlanta back into a livable community.” Caldwell continued, “During their presentation, they used Woodstock as an example of the kind of downtown that Atlanta should be emulating. Our capital city is looking to us.”
“When I came into office, we set out to accomplish an agenda centered on three key objectives,” said Mayor Caldwell. “We would engage the largest wealth generating mechanism in human history, American Home Ownership, to establish a Woodstock where anyone can build generational wealth. We would empower and attract employers to Woodstock to create a deeper sense of place and connection to our community by enabling more of our citizens to work in their home city. We would construct a record-breaking number of brand-new parks and trails that would be a lasting legacy for generations to come.”
The mayor shared information on parks and trails infrastructure projects underway throughout the city. He revealed the artists that will perform at the 2025 Woodstock Summer Concert Series – Interstellar Echoes Pink Floyd Tribute, Gin Blossoms, Josh Turner, 10,000 Maniacs, and Taylor Swift Tribute Let’s Sing Taylor – saying, “With three grammy nominated artists and two top-tier tributes, this is set to be one of the best seasons our city has ever put on.”
After highlighting the 2024 accomplishments of Woodstock Parks and Recreation, Mayor Caldwell said, “It is in their capable hands that we leave my administration’s priority for an historic expansion of our parks and trails. Moving forward, I will be shifting this priority to a focus on building the next generation of infrastructure for our City.”
Mayor Caldwell covered many of the projects included in the City’s first of its kind transportation plan adopted in his first year of office saying, “The truth is that every single major roadway or critical thoroughfare in the City of Woodstock is either currently being improved, funded for improvement, or being staged for the next available funding opportunity.”
Caldwell highlighted progress toward the SMARTWoodstock Master Plan saying, “We have built a global reputation for leading in technology, and in 2024 were awarded the Intelligent Communities Forum’s Smart21, naming us one of the top 21 cities globally for technology implementation.” In April 2024, Mayor Caldwell was invited to speak in Taiwan at the world’s second largest Smart Cities conference on artificial intelligence in the public sector, economic development and technology implementation in the City of Woodstock. Later last year, the city’s CIO Katy Leggett was invited to speak at the sister conference in Barcelona. According to Caldwell, “The City of Woodstock is not just utilizing technology, we are fast building a reputation as a world leader.”
Mayor Caldwell revealed new renderings for the Woodstock City Center Project that will bring thousands of square feet of new office, restaurants, and retail as well as a new hotel with conference space. Now that the city has delivered on the public sector components of the project, a new smart-technology, six-floor parking deck, the private sector is working to deliver the commercial components. Caldwell joked, “Enjoy the view of that parking deck, because it was designed to be hidden.”
According to the mayor, Woodstock’s total business revenues are estimated to be more than $5 billion annually. “According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Cherokee County’s total GDP measured $10.9 billion in 2022,” said Caldwell. “At 13.1 square miles, we make up 3% of the geographic area of our county. At 40,000 residents, we make up roughly 14% of the population of our county. We account for 40% of the economy of our county. This is why building vibrant, walkable downtowns matters. The economy that we drive in Woodstock powers the seventh largest county in Georgia and is a major economic center for our region.”
Mayor Caldwell discussed public safety in the City of Woodstock noting a 21% decrease in reported crime from 2023 to 2024 and sharing that Woodstock Fire Department is among the best 1% of departments in the nation. He referenced metro Atlanta’s 350,000 unit housing deficit in the core 5 counties stressing that a focus of the city’s development on inventory that can be owned will give citizens “a real opportunity to match the wealth generation of their parents, and their grandparents, and their great grandparents.”
A video of the full address including the Q&A that followed is available on the Mayor’s section of the city’s website at woodstockga.gov/mayor as well as on the city’s YouTube channel.
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About City of Woodstock, GA: Located just 30 miles north of Atlanta, Woodstock’s City limits include more than 12 square miles and over 35,000 residents. Woodstock is a Georgia PlanFirst Community, and a recipient of Georgia Municipal Association’s Live Work Play City Award. Learn more at woodstockga.gov.