17 - Downtown Visioning Plan - Toole Design GroupItem 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
should look and feel. At the end of the process, the City will have a vision for the downtown
and a plan for achieving that vision.
One key component of the process is consideration of the downtown streets. All of the public
streets through our downtown are classified as, TxDOT on -system business routes. As such, the
City is limited in what can be modified with respect to traffic lanes, parking, traffic signals, etc.,
without a traffic study. The charrette process will glean input from Tx OT so that the final
recommendations will consider their prospective and offer obtainable solutions to our specific
challenges.
The proposed fee for services is $90,005. In an effort to Support this project, and ensure
availability of funds, a group of stakeholders has raised over $80,000 in donations to cover
expenses associated with this effort.
BUDGET: Upon approval, the City of Paris is corninitting $I O,000, The remainder of the fee
will be covered by privately donated funds.
RECOMMENDATION: Authorize the City Manager to execute a contract for professional
services with Toole Design Group to develop the Downtown Visioning Plan for an amount not to
exceed $90,005.00.