Our last meeting on May 23, 2022, had some internally-set goals to gain a better understanding of the process of change as it pertains to rebuilding the downtown area, and to further identify new zones for business in new and existing areas.
With that in mind, we heard from the co-chairs of the Transportation and Utilities Committee, Tim Choate, and Ricky Binkley, on the basic work that needs to be done, and changes that needed to take place in the one-way “couplet” streets that serve as east and west boundaries to the area we are looking to highlight. Along with that, they talked about how quickly we need to get a draft of what we are looking at to the right entities: Department of Transportation, Planning Commission, City Council — and even reaching further to political leaders who have influence over the decisions to release funds required for the project from the deep pockets of the entities necessary to see the project to completion.
Along with that, Tim added that we need to look at the bigger picture — in terms of transportation/utilities planning — to make sure that even further future development would be able to build on what we have done.
We left with our “local urban planner,” John Russell (FEMA) agreeing to write up something that we could look at as a committee, and further develop in preparation of sending it to the other entities mentioned earlier.
The “assignment” for the next meeting is to look closer at the Broadway section between 7th & 8th Streets and beyond (west of the Hall Hotel) with some recommendations, etc., for development.
The Design/Build Committee meets again on Tuesday, May 31, at 5pm at the Annie Gardner Foundation.
