Minutes Downtown Plan 1 13 03 DOWNTOWN PLANNING COMMITTEE
LONG RANGE PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION
Monday, January 13, 2003
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 Noon
Conference Room #2, City Hall Annex
1300 Main Street, Dubuque, iowa
PRESENT:
ABSENT:
Doris Hingtgen, Jim Gibbs, Dan LoBianco, Ann Michalski, Dave Rusk,
John Walsh, Dick Wertzberger, Judie Fjellman. Staff Members Laura
Carstens, Tim Horsfield (for Bill Baum), Rich Russell, David Harris,
Jerelyn O'Connor and Beth Conlon; Consultants: Anne Ricker and Bob
Kost.
Committee Members Jim Giesen, Bob Felderman, Pam Jochum, and Mike
Ironside.
CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 9:05 a.m.,
CERTIFICATION OF COMPLIANCE: Staff presented an Affidavit of Compliance
verifying that the meeting was being held in compliance with the Iowa Open Meetings
Law.
MINUTES: Motion by Wertzberger, seconded by Walsh to approve the meeting
minutes of November 4, 2002 as submitted. Motion carried unanimously.
Chairperson Rusk introduced new committee member Judie Fjellman of Dubuque
Initiatives and welcomed her to the Downtown Planning Committee.
ACTION ITEM:
Kick-off Meeting with Leland Consultin.q Group Team: Downtown Master Planning
consultants Anne Ricker, Leland Consulting Group, Denver, Colorado and Bob Kost,
Senior Associate of URS, Minneapolis, Minnesota presented their Downtown Dubuque
Master Plan strategy to the Downtown Planning Committee members.
Ms. Ricker shared the Downtown Dubuque Master Plan project mission statement with
the Committee: "To assist the client team with preparation of redevelopment strategies
for downtown which will produce tangible results and information that will lead to
careful investment and a welt served market."
The consultants reviewed the essentials of an implementable plan and strategy are:
To understand our downtown as a sub-market.
To identify the critical components of downtown identity.
To leverage existing development opportunities.
To understand the built environment (the historic environment).
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January 13, 2003
Page 2
To create linkages and educate with the delivery system.
To insure economic sustainability.
To enhance INability.
They added that the challenges to downtown revitalization are:
Lack of developable land.
Comparatively high land costs.
Competition for City dollars.
The economics of redevelopment.
The older buildings and infrastructure.
Inconsistent neighborhood infrastructure.
Greater risk in serving a narrow market.
Transportation connections,
Parking accessibility.
Ms. Ricker, Mr. Kost and the Committee members discussed the various essentials and
challenges of this project. Ms. Ricker shared that what makes Dubuque unique are
community assets, traditional values the character of the local market, our commitment
to reinvestment and our culture and history. Ms. Ricker and Mr. Kost affirmed that the
deliverable products of the Downtown Master Plan and the redevelopment strategy
would include:
Base maps.
A comprehensive database.
Community profile(s).
Synthesis of barriers to reinvestment-capacity analysis.
Cross reference with the Vision Downtown plan.
Business inventory and demand estimates.
Development concept plans with niche opportunities.
Benchmark variables.
A final framework plan.
Urban design framework.
A menu of project, program and policy initiatives.
Identifiable implementable projects (developer RFPs).
Ms. Ricker noted that the benefits to a healthy downtown are the increased ability to
attract and retain employees, to establish criteria for bond rating companies, to provide
recruitment tools for new industry, to stimulate the region's economy and to provide
good investment. She added that objectives for the Downtown Master Plan strategy
are to:
Identif7 the critical components of downtown identity.
Understand the market.
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January 13, 2003
Page 3
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Leverage existing development opportunities.
Understand the built (historic) environment.
Create linkages.
Use the delivery system to educate the community.
Ensure economic sustainability.
Enhance livability and produce an implementable plan and strategy.
Ms. Ricker, Mr. Kost and the Committee members discussed outreach tools that will
engage the downtown stakeholder:
Stakeholder interviews.
Walking tours of the historical districts.
Communication.
Planning retreat workshop.
Regular work group meetings.
Periodic business group coffees/lunches.
Community meetings at key stages.
City Council work sessions.
Coffees or lunches with business and service groups.
Youth-for example high schools, colleges, NICC.
The Committee also discussed engaging the Chamber of Commerce, GDDC Board,
Dubuque Multiple Listing Services (joint meeting), neighborhood associations (joint
meeting) as well as using existing newsletters at Dubuque Main Street, Ltd., Chamber
of Commerce, and the City, media releases and public service announcements (PSAs).
Committee members discussed that we should be engaging not only the leaders,
movers and shakers of the community, but also ordinary citizens. Committee members
noted that the commitment to keep ordinary citizens involved is very important; we need
to keep them educated and abreast of the process.
Committee members also had other general ideas regarding about the Downtown
Master Planning process:
To keep handicapped-accessibility issues in mind when making walking tours.
To limit meetings with the City Council to two short meetings rather than one
long and one short meeting.
To use extra City Council work sessions, if controversial issues develop, to
resolve those issues.
To use a presentation at the City Council as an action item in lieu of a work
session.
To establish a schedule for the Downtown Planning Committee to meet with
emphasis on meetings with the consultants.
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January 13, 2003
Page 4
The meeting continued with a discussion regarding the communication and delivery
system to help the community take ownership of the Downtown Master Plan strategy.
Comments were made that it was important to communicate our successes and that
sustainability is a continuing process. Some Committee members questioned whether
there was a marketing piece and a map with highlighted locations to use as a marketing
tool with developers and investors. Leland Team said that they would help prepare
information in binders to be packaged as we need it with poster plans or two-page
fold-out brochures and insert sheets that could be used immediately after the Plan is
adopted.
Ms. Ricker handed out paper and markers and asked Committee members to draw a
map of the Downtown area as it is today and how they envision the Downtown for the
future. After the exercise, each Committee member shared his or her map and vision
for the future of the Downtown. Suggestions for the future were:
Upscale shopping.
A shift in City Council goals from the emphasis on family to the emphasis on
Dubuque as a place for a broader population.
Downtown transportation improvements along with way-finding sign systems.
Educating property owners on the return on investment for housing and retail in
the Downtown area.
Look at small to medium-sized cities and in Iowa and use Main Street Iowa as an
inspiration. The cities of Natchez, Vicksburg, Fargo, Green Bay, LaCrosse,
Lansing, Walla Walla, Boise, Sioux Falls and St. Charles were mentioned.
Some impediments to the Downtown Master Plan were discussed: storm water
management, a downtown elementary school, and absentee downtown landlords.
Ms. Ricker then asked each person to state a project that they would like to see come
to completion in the next five years. The following projects were identified:
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
A totally renovated Julien Inn.
A totally renovated Fischer Building.
A light rail trolley system.
A downtown residential/service retail project.
A large retail anchor store, upscale if possible.
Prescott community school/center.
Restoration and new uses for the brick warehouse district.
A new use for the Masonic Temple.
Nesler Centre restoration/renovation.
Committee members and the consultants discussed that the planning process does not
involve redoing the adopted Vision Downtown, but that the process does include
assessing the vision versus reality as well as assessing the vision and reality versus
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January 13,2003
Page 5
existing plans.
The next meeting was scheduled for March 10, 2003 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The
February 10th meeting was canceled. Consensus was to hold a retreat at the Four
Mounds Conference Center on Friday, April 11, 2003 from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
ADJOURNMENT: The meeting adjourned at 11:55 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Adopted:
Elizabeth Conlon, Assistant Planner