17 - Downtown Visioning Plan - Toole Design Group

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Item No. 17 TO; Mayor & City Council John Godwin, City Manager FROM: Carla Easton, PE, City Engineer SUBJECT: DOWNTOWN VISIONING PLAN — TOOLE DESIGN GROUP, DATE: May 7, 2018 BACKGROUND: The City of Paris, through its Main Street Program, is charged with finding innovative ways to inspire and energize a vibrant and successful downtown community. There are many facets to a successful downtown, including reliable infrastructure, safe and walkable streets, amenities and aesthetics, unique events and programming, proper building maintenance and restoration, business incentives, and more. The City has made progress, and continues to look for ways to keep the downtown relevant. In February 2018, the Main Street Board hosted a meeting with downtown business owners and property owners. The purpose of the meeting was to provide a status update for improvements in downtown, and also to receive feedback from stakeholders for prioritizing future initiatives. At the meeting, stakeholders recommended to the City Manager that the City pursue the help of planning professionals experienced with the: revitalization of downtowns in Texas, similar to recent improvernents in Sulphur Springs, in order to create a unified vision for downtown Paris. STATUS OF ISSUE: In response to the request, Staff contacted lan Lockwood with the Toole Design Group, who was directly involved with revitalization projects in Sulphur Springs and Commerce, among many others. Toole Design Group specializes in revitalization efforts for downtowns, focusing on livable, walkable communities. They have extensive knowledge and experience in the fields of planning and engineering of this type of environment, Toole: Design Group has provided a scope of work for a downtown visioning effort to include a two-part charrette, illustrative site plan, concept renderings and a final memo -style report with recommendations for the long-tenn vision of the Paris downtown. The benefit of a charrette process is that it solicits input from stakeholders and prioritizes solutions that meet the needs of the community while contemplating potential pitfalls or roadblocks in the implementation process. A charrette is a planning too] that involves stakeholder interviews and public hearings designed to capture the overall vision and obtain an inforined consensus for how the community