Downtown Master Plan 1 5 WksessPlanning Services Department
City Hall
50 West 13th Street
Dubuque, Iowa 520014864
(563) 5894210 office
(563) 5894221 fax
(563) 690-6678 TDD
plarmingC~cityofdubuque.org
December 26, 2003
The Honorable Mayor and City Council
City of Dubuque
50 W. 13th Street
Dubuque, IA 52001
RE: January 5 Work Session on Downtown Dubuque Master Plan
Dear Mayor and City Council Members:
Introduction
The Downtown Planning Committee is pleased to have the opportunity to meet with you in a work
session on January 5 to review the Downtown Dubuque Master Plan. Please bring your binders.
Our Downtown is the heart of our community. It is the historic center of our city and our most
precious source of community pride and identity. It belongs to all of us.
As we all know, good things are happening in our Downtown, particularly along our dverfront. The
Downtown Master Plan embraces the Port of Dubuque Master Plan as an important part of the
downtown study area. Now is the time that we capitalize on that momentum. Now is the time to
resonate that success to our broader downtown.
The Process
Vision Downtown, a community consensus for growth and development in the downtown area, was
created in 2001 through a highly inclusive community dialogue that engaged over 2,000 of our
citizens directly and many more indirectly.
In December 2003, we delivered the Downtown Master Plan that was created on the foundation of
Vision Downtown. It is the hope of the Downtown Planning Committee that this Downtown Master
Plan will guide our community toward a broad revitalization of the heart of our city.
The downtown planning process has assessed the vision relative to today's realities and also
relative to the host of existing plans and programs that have bean developed - and initiated to
varying degrees - in recent years. Ultimately, the planning process has yielded a consolidated
strategy and action agenda designed to make a reality the vision for a downtown that is a
center for living, working, playing, and visiting that will be a source of enormous community
pdde for our citizens far into the future.
The Plan
The Downtown Master Plan is organized around the six dimensions of Vision Downtown, which
serves as its foundation. These sections include: Commerce; Culture, Education and
Entertainment; Historical Features; Public Space and Open Areas; Residential Living; and
Transportation. For each of these sections, there is a discussion of current conditions, catalyst
Service People Integrity Respons bgl~ Innovation Teamwork
Downtown Dubuque Master Plan
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opportunities, barders to investment, and priority actions. There is also a group of initiatives that
are discussed in the Overview section that are identified as general strategies. Detailed actions
are itemized and consolidated in an Action Matrix.
Implementation
At the work session, the Downtown Planning Committee will review the Downtown Master Plan
in a power point presentation, including:
· Guiding Principles
· Prerequisites for Success
· Summary of Current Conditions, Catalyst Opportunities, Barriers to Investment,
and Priority Actions for Each Element
· Review How Action Steps could be Accomplished
· Note Plan has Long-Term Implementation Time frame
· Successful Examples from Other Cities
We all know that there is no single action that will lead us to the broadly revitalized downtown
that we seek. It will instead be the vadety of actions that the Downtown Master Plan details that
will collectively do so.
Just as there is no single action that will lead us to the broadly revitalized downtown that we
seek, there is no expectation that the City solely will or should undertake and finance the
strategies and actionS recommended by the Downtown Master Plan. While the City is an
important and leading stakeholder in the broad revitalization of the Downtown, the City cannot
go it alone.
Neither is there the expectation that the strategies and actions recommended by the Downtown
Master Plan will be accomplished in the short term. Although the plan acknowledges the
existing plans and programs that have been developed and initiated, the plan envisions a ten-
year time frame for full implementation.
The Downtown Master Plan provides a framework for implementation that offers input into:
· the City Council's annual goal setting sessions,
· the City's annual development of the operating and capital improvement budgets,
the annual list of legislative issues for the Iowa Legislature,
· the community needs and projects to showcase with the Congressional delegation, and
· planning and progremming steps with partner organizations.
We look forward to reviewing the DowntOwn Master Plan with you on January 5, and answering
any questions you may have.
Sincerely,
David Wm. Rusk, Chairperson
Downtown Planning Committee