Downtown Planning for Smaller and Midsized Communities

Philip Walker

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351177955
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

"For so long we were floundering and taking ad hoc measures, but the minute I understood what a downtown plan really was I said 'We need one of those!' As it turned out, it was the most fantastic vehicle I've ever seen," said Susan Moffat-Thomas of New Bern, North Carolina. Her hometown got a much-needed shot in the arm from a good downtown plan. Does yours need a similar boost? The Author, an experienced downtown-planning consultant, offers practical tips for preserving a sense of place, improving fiscal efficiency, and enhancing quality of life in Downtown Planning for Smaller and Midsized Communities. Planners and revitalization officials will learn how to address physical components of the downtown, as well as economic development. The Author, an experienced downtown-planning consultant, also explains how to develop an organization to implement a downtown plan; how federal, state, and local policies may influence the planning process; and how to fund a downtown revitalization effort.

1
The Groundwork Before Planning

Downtown holds together the most varied mix of economic, civic and social functions. It is the place where everyone can meet and interact, where monuments are located, where speeches are made, where parades are held and people are entertained. More than anything else, downtown gives a community its collective identity and thus its pride.

—Richard Moe and Carter Wilkie, Changing Places: Rebuilding Community in the Age of Sprawl

Faced with the question, Does downtown really need a plan?, some officials who have shaped successful downtowns testified to the importance of a plan specific to downtown needs. Susan Moffat-Thomas, the executive director of Swiss Bear Downtown Development Corporation in New Bern, North Carolina, said that, in 2002, it was vital, as her organization employed a consulting team to prepare the successor to the town’s 1977 and 1990 downtown plans. In addition to addressing urban design issues, the plan included retail, housing, and transportation components, as well as a great deal of public input. “For so long we were floundering and taking ad hoc measures, but the minute I understood what a downtown plan really was I said ‘We need one of those!’ As it turned out, it was the most fantastic vehicle I’ve ever seen.” Similarly, Julie Glover, the downtown director for Denton, Texas, claims that the $150,000 downtown master plan prepared in 2002 “was definitely worth it in that it got everyone engaged and fired up.” Echoing the same sentiment is Joey Dunn, aicp, the former director of planning and development services for Bryan, Texas. According to Dunn, who helped oversee a $230,000 downtown master plan for Bryan in 2001, “Having a well-defined comprehensive master plan, coupled with sustained political and financial support, can mean all the difference in getting a downtown area going again.”And there is more than mere anecdotal evidence that planning is an important activity for most downtowns. The Brookings Institution’s 2005 research brief, “Turning Around Downtown: Twelve Steps to Revitalization,” suggests that one of the most critical of the recommended 12 steps is “Step 2: Develop a Strategic Plan.” In fact, it states that “having a strategy and management plan for downtown is absolutely imperative.”

What Prompts A Plan?

Figure 1-1. City officials in Bryan, Texas, credit their 2001 downtown master plan as the catalyst for reinvigorating their downtown, including an extensive streetscape redevelopment, the rehabilitation of more than 25 historic structures, the establishment of numerous new businesses, and the creation of a new downtown redevelopment authority.

Source: The Walker Collaborative

While this faith in the power of planning is difficult to refute in general terms, and proactive downtown initiatives are certainly commendable, major planning efforts are usually undertaken only under certain circumstances. For most downtowns, the financial and human resources required for preparing a legitimate plan dictate that planning is a relatively infrequent occurrence. In fact, while an annual plan “revisit” is not unheard of and is often well advised, most municipalities and downtown organizations prepare a new downtown plan no more than once every five or 10 years, as is often the case with communitywide comprehensive plans. So how does one know when it is time to prepare a new plan for their downtown? There are a number of conditions that might prompt the creation of a new downtown plan, including those described in the following sections.

Passage of Time

No magic number exists for the frequency at which new downtown plans should be prepared or substantially updated. However, five-year planning increments are a reasonable rule of thumb, and that time horizon happens to coincide with the requirements of many states that mandate countywide and citywide comprehensive plans. For the typical downtown, the passing of a half decade usually results in enough change that the existing plan becomes obsolete, particularly with respect to economic and marketing strategies. During the period between new plans, an existing plan should be revisited and reconsidered on an annual basis. This exercise does not require that the plan be revised annually but simply reevaluated and kept alive in the minds of its users. Despite these rules of thumb, some downtowns are well-advised to allow for the passage of substantially more time than the norm before initiating a major downtown planning project. For example, the Brookings Institution suggests deferring downtown planning “if there has been a recent (within 20 years) failure of a previous attempt. It takes a full generation to get over the collapse of a revitalization effort and the injection of fresh leadership unencumbered with the ‘we tried that once and it didn’t work’ mindset” (Leinberger 2005, 4).

Major New Developments

Major new developments can range from a welcomed opportunity (e.g., a mixed use building that provides a celebrated new downtown anchor) to a perceived threat to the downtown’s vitality (e.g., a suburban shopping mall that directly competes with the businesses currently downtown). During the early 1990s, for example, numerous Midwestern, Mississippi River, and Gulf Coast communities commissioned downtown plans in response to the advent of casino gambling. Those plans typically sought to minimize the potential negative impacts, such as traffic congestion and competition with local dining and entertainment businesses, while maximizing the potential positive effects, such as tax revenues and the leveraging of economic benefits for downtown revitalization. Similarly, new public facilities can be as promising as a downtown convention center or as dreaded as a suburban post office to replace the downtown facility. Even seemingly benevolent new downtown facilities must be appropriately located and designed in order to help, and not harm, the downtown. Development clearly incompatible with a downtown’s unique physical character or pedestrian orientation can underscore the need for planning and new regulations designed to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

Transportation Changes

Transportation changes are one of the most significant external forces that affect downtowns, and they come in a variety of forms. Given that many downtowns are traversed by state-designated roads, the widening of streets, the conversion of two-way streets to one-way streets, and the elimination of on-street parking are common “improvements” inflicted upon many unsuspecting downtowns by their state department of transportation, transforming comfortable urban streets into undesirable barriers. Other transportation changes prompting the need for a plan include bypasses around a downtown or the introduction of mass transit, such as a commuter rail stop in the downtown. In the case of transportation changes that would negatively affect the downtown, the plan needs to offer alternatives or mitigating actions. In the case of positive changes, such as a commuter rail stop, the plan needs to assess its opportunities and devise a strategy to leverage benefits to the downtown. According to Randall Gross, a Washington, D.C., consultant with the firm Randall Gross/Development Economics, such a plan was crafted for Frederick, Maryland, when a new transit stop was planned as part of the Maryland Area Rail Commuter (MARC) system. Even commuter rail stops, however, can be a double-edged sword, requiring mitigation from impacts such as noise, traffic disruptions, safety issues, and large parking areas.

Changing Economic Conditions

While positive economic conditions can be a good reason for a downtown to plan its future, a serious and sustained downward trend more typically prompts planning. Increased building vacancies are usually a telltale sign of troubles ahead, but more subtle trends can be equally alarming. For example, the usurping of ground-floor retail uses by offices, or the inability to produce downtown housing, can be strong justifications for planning initiatives. Many downtowns facing these dilemmas have commissioned studies or plans intended to address those specific challenges either as part of a comprehensive downtown plan or as a special study limited to that particular issue. For example, several downtowns that experienced a trend of ground-floor retail uses being replaced by offices—including Pinehurst, North Carolina, and Franklin, Tennessee—hired real estate economists to conduct a study to address the issue, often with very positive results. Despite such reactionary measures, many communities already enjoying a strong economy have the foresight to plan for their downtowns as part of an overall communitywide economic development strategy, rather than waiting for hard times to arrive.

Image Problems

Occasionally, a downtown’s image suffers setbacks that call for “damage control” in the form of planning. High-profile crime is one form of negative publicity that some downtowns experience. In fact, the location of media offices in downtowns, such as newspapers and television stations, can also be a double-edged sword. Although their employees are welcome customers for restaurants and shops, the convenience of covering even minor downtown crime stories can be a detriment. A series of publicized assaults and robberies might beg for a downtown plan, especially one emphasizing image development and marketing. The closing or relocation of a key downtown business, and the negative publicity that comes with it, can also be enough to prompt a plan. There can also be a combination of circumstances creating a generally negative image. In an interview with Fernando Micale of Wallace, Roberts and Todd, I learned that downtown Philadelphia’s image had deteriorated so much by the 1980s that the “Central City Plan” was eventually commissioned, spurring the creation of a Business Improvement District (BID) and a public relations campaign that ultimately helped turn the area’s image around.

Available Support and Resources

Sometimes the stars must be properly aligned for planning opportunities to arise. Even if no other special circumstances occur, newfound political support or financial resources can make embarking on a downtown plan possible. A single election or a successful grant application can suddenly make a pipe dream for a downtown plan become a reality. For Murray, Kentucky, as well as several other communities across Kentucky, a state program channeling funds to designated “Renaissance” communities made a comprehensive downtown plan possible in 2000. The results for Murray have included a new streetscape around

The Road Less Traveled to a Downtown Plan

State Route 206 through central New Jersey passes through a broad spectrum of conditions ranging from scenic rural landscapes to historic urban centers. The highway segment traversing Hillsborough Township, just north of Princeton, features strip commercial development as generic as any found in America. However, in the late 1990s, the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) provided an unprecedented opportunity for positive change by supporting the township’s plans to recreate a Main Street that had long vanished. NJDOT plans for a bypass for Hills-borough had existed for years and, if constructed, would provide a driving alternative to the strip commercial segment through Hills-borough. The bypass would also cause that segment of Route 206 to lose its state designation, along with the NJDOT standards that apply to such roads. The township was quick to recognize its unique chance to transform a poster child for sprawl into a new downtown or “town center.”

One of the first steps taken was to conduct a computerized survey in which public preferences were solicited on various development issues for the corridor. The survey was placed on the township’s web-site, and computer terminals for taking the survey were provided at a handful of locations throughout the community, including the Township Hall, the public library, and a coffeehouse. Topics such as density, building scale and form, the location of parking, streetscapes, and overall design character were polled, with more than 1,000 citizens taking the survey. The results were then used as the basis for a new master plan, zoning, and design standards intended to create a genuine urban center as the area redevelops over time. Although the real-estate market has been slow in helping the township’s dream of a traditional Main Street come to fruition, the plan has continued to receive support from the state. Fortunately for Hillsborough, NJDOT has come to embrace smart growth concepts and stands by its commitment to assist the township in the development of its coveted Main Street.

the courthouse area, newly restored building facades, and numerous new businesses. Without the serendipitous financial support from the state, the downtown plan that triggered those improvements would likely have never occurred.

Keeping Planning In Perspective

While almost any downtown can benefit measurably from a master plan, the value of plans must be kept in perspective. For example, a downtown with very limited funding that must choose between preparing a plan and establishing a management entity would, in most instances, be better served by the management entity. Not only is a plan of limited use without an entity whose primary mission is to implement it, but some of the recommendations contained in a downtown plan might likely have been hatched independent of a plan. Ideas such as streetscape redevelopments, new infill buildings, and marketing campaigns can certainly be generated outside of a master planning process, although without a plan they may not be coordinated for maximum benefit. In fact, most downtown plans include some concepts contemplated by stakeholders for years prior to the plan’s preparation. Any good downtown plan will take advantage of such ideas, expand upon them, give them a context within a grander scheme, rank their order of priority, provide an implementation strategy, and lend them greater credibility than they would have otherwise.

Countless thriving and prosperous downtowns lack a master plan. Undoubtedly, some downtowns are blessed with such strong demographics, tourism traffic, or other attributes that they succeed without planning, and sometimes they succeed in spite of themselves. Likewise, plenty of downtowns have master plans, yet they are still not the strong and dynamic places they would like to be. While a plan, in and of itself, will not be the sole panacea for any downtown, its skillful and persistent implementation will undoubtedly allow the downtown to optimize its performance and to become a better place than it would be without a plan.

Selling The Need For A Plan

One of the most critical steps in preparing a downtown plan occurs before the formal planning process ever begins. If a core group of downtown supporters are unable to persuade the key decision makers and funding sources to embark upon a plan, all of the other related issues become irrelevant. Surprisingly, some of the toughest individuals to sell on a downtown plan are those who have lived in the community the longest. They can recall the downtown’s former glory, and they can see the current problems, but they may not be able to envision future revitalization. Many elected officials fall into this category, seeing the downtown as a hopeless case. A history of past downtown efforts that failed can be particularly harmful and galvanize the skeptics. In fact, many downtown stakeholders who become actively involved in revitalization efforts are relatively new to the community, and they often have firsthand experience with other successful downtowns. An even tougher sell than a plan to resuscitate a struggling d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Chapter 1. The Groundwork Before Planning
• Chapter 2. The Process of Preparing a Downtown Plan
• Chapter 3. The Physical Plan
• Chapter 4. The Economic and Marketing Plan
• Chapter 5. Implementation Strategy
• Conclusion: What Is Really Important?
• References
• Index
• Discussion Questions
• About the Author