February 26, 2020 | Effective & Efficient Downtown Planning: Creating a More Action-oriented and Implementable Community Plan | By Ben Levenger, President of Downtown Redevelopment Services, LLC |
Left: Residents discuss a unified goal at a planning meeting. Right: A tactile public input exercise. Credit Downtown Redevelopment Services
A downtown plan is the hallmark of a community that is looking to clearly define its path towards revitalization. A traditional downtown plan outlines recommendations, where they will be implemented, and how much they will cost. These plans are a fantastic way to solidify the goals of your community, yet they lack the necessary thought and planning to ensure recommendations are implementable. This step often falls to a strategic plan, by which time many communities have become apathetic about the planning process. At that point, many communities flounder and become disenfranchised with the downtown revitalization process.
With this understanding of the process, the logical solution is to create a document that is a hybrid of a traditional downtown plan and a strategic plan. Selecting the best parts of each and combining them into a single, more direct document will help a community more easily and seamlessly move into implementation. Keep reading to learn about some practical ways to create a strategic downtown plan that will help bring about changes in your downtown, build on easily completed projects, and grow momentum to meet objectives.
Tips and tricks for an effective downtown plan
Residents provide feedback at a community meeting to support a common goals. Credit: Downtown Redevelopment Service
We have outlined tips and tricks below that we’ve learned from working with communities across the country. Through these methods, any community can identify a common goal and begin to make meaningful change in their downtown.
1. Identify and utilize your community’s current capacity
Understanding your community’s fiscal and time commitment capacity will help you understand how to create, set, and prioritize goals. By focusing on goals that will capitalize on available resources and be the most impactful, you can build momentum for revitalization with little to no costs. We have found that often the simplest items are just as impactful as larger, multi-year projects. For example, while waiting for the resources to complete a comprehensive streetscape project, you can install flower baskets, banners, or other low-cost items. These will have an immediate effect that will not only beautify your community but also encourage your residents to keep going. While this may be a temporary diversion from larger issues, this tactic will help your community get some “wins” and build upon them until larger projects are attainable.
2. Answer the “Five W’s and one H”
Everyone has heard that recommendations should be specific and time-bound. While this is true, we recommend taking this one step further. For each goal or recommendation, you should be able to answer the following:
- Who will complete the task?
- What will the task require for successful implementation?
- When will the important milestones be reached and the task completed?
- Where will the task be completed?
- Why is the task important?
- How will the recommendation be completed? This one should specify the means and methods for implementation.
By answering these questions, every community can determine accountability for each recommendation or goal, and they can create a roles and responsibilities matrix (see example here). This matrix is a living document meant to be updated and assessed annually as work is completed.
3. Plan for the short and the long term
Communities often struggle with raising funds or meeting the match dollars for larger projects. These communities are focused on a single goal. A community cannot make incremental changes by focusing on one ultimate goal, so it is recommended that you plan for the short and the long-term. In this way, you will build momentum by undertaking small projects, building a stronger tax base, and ensuring an easier implementation process for larger projects. By planning for the following time-frames, a Main Street group will limit apathy and negative attitudes towards revitalization:
- Years 1 to 2 — In these years, the easiest projects should be completed, such as: signage; banners; flower baskets; site programming; and developer readiness training.
- Years 3 to 5 — These years should focus on projects that need some financial backing, but are not multi-year projects, such as: façade programs; wayfinding signage; placemaking and branding; site amenity installation; and parks and recreation integration.
- Years 6 to 10 — Larger, long-term projects are completed within these years, capitalizing on the earlier work. These projects often require significant lead time in design, increased costs, and physical construction of infrastructure. Projects for this range include: streetscape projects; adaptive reuse projects; civic space creation; and permanent outdoor dining space creation.
All of these ranges and recommendations should be simultaneously planned and prioritized. It is through planning for the short and the long term that your community will be able to understand what can be done immediately and how to build momentum for larger projects in the long-term.
4. Be action-oriented
Downtown plans usually lack adequate action items for successful implementation. Recommendations should be streamlined and reduced to only action-oriented items that will be catalysts for the community to allow a Main Street group to:
- ensure they are useful in a roles and responsibilities matrix
- ensure they can meet the “Five W’s and one H”
- determine the appropriate means and methods for implementation
5. Be clear, concise, and specific
Many downtown plans are hundreds of pages long. While this may work for larger communities, small communities struggle with these larger documents. A strong downtown plan should be no more than 40 pages long, highly graphic and specific, and community-driven. It addition, it should:
- create a deep understanding of the baseline conditions in the community;
- prepare a single downtown or community-wide goal for the revitalized downtown;
- and prepare a clear, concise, and easy-to-follow path for bridging the two points of “existing conditions” and “desired community goal.”
Out of the need for this clear, concise, and specific document, a community can create a hybridized downtown and strategic plan. Through using this hybrid plan, your community can remove unnecessary sections or text and reduce downtown planning consultant costs or internal staff time.
These tips and tricks are provided as recommendations, with the understanding that every community has its own unique characteristics. All of these recommendations may not work in every community, but they should be considered as part of your ongoing planning process or yearly review of the strategic downtown plan.
Conclusion
While preparing a downtown plan is perhaps not the most glamorous or popular job, it is one of the most important ones your Main Street will ever undertake. Through utilizing these simple, yet effective, methods your community will be able to realize a revitalized downtown prepared to meet the needs of residents and visitors alike. Completing these steps will help your community become more focused, action-oriented, and strongly vested in the overall revitalization process.
About the Author
Ben Levenger is an AICP planner and registered landscape architect. He is the President of Downtown Redevelopment Services, LLC (DRS), a boutique planning firm specializing in assisting communities through downtown planning and adaptive reuse projects. In addition, he is a founding member of DRI-RR, Inc.; a non-profit formed to help trading communities become proactive with private development to meet under-served community needs or amenities. He also is a “member-at-large” in the Cleveland section of APA and serves on the membership committee for the Cleveland section of ULI.