Stakeholders work weekends

Published 10:30 am Tuesday, March 24, 2015

The 42 stakeholders selected by the city participated in a two-day design workshop at the Community and Event Center on Friday and Saturday.

The goal of Friday’s four-hour evening session was to brainstorm and find commonalities of the ideas and goals for Town Center streetscapes and building forms. The stakeholders split into small groups and presented their findings.

Many suggested the city save money and buy land in the downtown area to build a large plaza or park to add greenery and character and act as a gathering place for community events.

The issues identified were consistent among the groups, but could prove tricky to solve: lack of parking, too-small courtyards and too-tall buildings.

The city hired consultants last year to help with the visioning work — Seth Harry and Associates and Three Square Blocks. The consultants worked on Saturday to come up with designs and renderings passed on feedback from the stakeholder session and previous public input meetings. They presented preliminary ideas to the group on Saturday night.