The Downtown Master Plan sets the course for the Town and its partners in the upcoming years to re-imagine its historic commercial downtown and surrounding neighborhood.
Developed from the vision that this community articulated so clearly through the public engagement process, and refined with the Master Plan committee, this plan harnesses the existing assets of downtown and identifies the catalytic opportunities to spur ongoing redevelopment.
Among those catalytic opportunities is public investment in three signature public realm spaces that will create activity and event destinations; Town Green, Downtown Connector, and Downtown Plaza. These opportunities also include four private development sites that will introduce restaurant, retail, office, maker space, and housing. Preliminary financial proformas identify the need for proactive incentives to attract private investment, and the ways in which to do that have been identified.
In addition to catalytic opportunities, this plan identifies other factors that may be limiting the redevelopment of downtown today, and addresses these with a range of actions for the Town to consider. The plan includes an implementation program that was developed in support of the vision, and built on six primary pillars; political, organizational, regulatory, financial, physical and market. Within each of these pillars, the recommended actions have been identified along with a priority, approximate cost magnitude, and sponsors.
Over time, these will change with new actions added, priorities and costs adjusted, and new sponsors added to help implement. Downtown redevelopment is an ambitious and lengthy process. Maintaining consistent political support, developing a broad network of community organizations and stakeholders to take part in implementing it, and thoughtfully organizing the funding mechanisms will make this plan a success!