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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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I had my doubts when I saw the Master Plan. However, when an individual who was a prior City Manager said the same thing, I figured I was on the right track. His comments and the comments of others were that s Master Plan was only a land use document.
Where are the specifics? What about zoning, one way streets, business incubators, etc.
Master plans can only suggest what will happen 10 years at best. To tell the north end their vision is more than 20 to 30 years in the future is to tell them they don't
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Mon Aug 26, 2013 6:34 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Redevelopment, street system overhaul and job creation highlights of proposed Ypsilanti master plan
By Tom Perkins AnnArbor.com Freelance Journalist
Posted on Mon, Aug 26, 2013 : 5:57 a.m.
Ypsilanti’s proposed new master plan is complete.
Among the highlights are proposals are an end to the one-way street network; a reconfiguration of the Washtenaw Avenue and Cross Street intersection; a blueprint for Water Street development; improved zoning; ideas to spur job growth; the creation of “festival streets” and plazas; the redevelopment of industrial zones into either “job centers” or residential zones and much more.
On Aug. 21, the Ypsilanti Planning Commission and Ypsilanti City Council held a joint committee in which City Planner Teresa Gillotti and planning consultant Megan Masson-Minock of ENP & Associates presented the plan.
Planning officials will now present the proposed plan to the public over the next several months before the Planning Commission takes it up for approval at its October meeting.
When the process began a nearly year ago, Gillotti was instructed to provide a different document than is standard for master plans, which are required by state law.
“We asked you for something different and outside-the-box and I think that’s what you gave us,” Planning Commission Chair Rod Johnson said.
Gillotti said those working on the proposed plan recognize that master plans have a “shelf life” because changes in the community or market cannot be predicted 10 to 20 years out. This plan was designed to be flexible and serve as a guide to decision making when the master plan doesn’t address a specific situation a decade or two later, Gillotti said. Changes to the street system
One of the most talked-about components of the plan is eliminating Ypsilanti’s one-way roads and changing them into two-way streets.
Gillotti said the purpose is to provide better access to the city for motorists and slow traffic, which makes certain areas - like West Cross Street near EMU - more friendly to pedestrians.
“One-way streets are designed to flow car traffic through a city or to keep the flow steady and efficient,” Gillotti said. “Two-way streets give better access to people trying to get to actual destinations in the city.”
What would be a one-block trip in many parts of downtown turns into a four to five-block trip because of one-way streets. Gillotti says she hears that people will skip destinations because of that, and the city’s aim is to keep people in the downtown area.
“Ann Arbor did this with State Street, which was one-way a long time ago,” Gillotti said. “They made it two-way, and it’s a perfect example of such a change slowing down traffic on a street, creating a better climate for business and pedestrians and really creating a better destination.”
The plan presents rough ideas and designs for roundabouts at the intersection of Hamilton Street, Huron Street and Interstate 94; Michigan Avenue and Congress Street; and at Michigan Avenue and River Street.
The Michigan Avenue roundabouts would be designed to help slow traffic through downtown.
The reconfiguration of the Washtenaw Avenue and Cross Street intersection into two, two-way streets that would serve as a pedestrian-friendly “front door” to Eastern Michigan University is another major piece of the street overhaul.
Road reconfigurations were also suggested for Leforge Road and Huron River Drive just north of EMU, which is awkward for the many pedestrians traveling between campus and the city and could serve as a more lively commercial area.
On the southside, a road diet and zoning changes are proposed for Harriet Street, which planners are hoping can be revived as a commercial center for the dense neighborhoods in that area.
Though the idea of switching roads to two-way streets in phases was floated, several council members and planners didn’t believe that would be possible.
“It would be difficult to unravel it one street at a time,” Council Member Pete Murdock said. “We have to have a plan to do the whole thing. We’d have to find the wherewithal to come up with sketches and designs to take to MDOT and then find the money to (switch the roads),” he said.
The proposed master plan includes a number of other fun ideas for creating a pedestrian friendly environment in the downtown districts, including a plaza around the Ypsilanti Freighthouse once a planned commuter train begins stopping there.
It also proposes the creation of “festival streets” along Washington Street between Michigan Avenue and Pearl Street; and at Cross Street and River Street in Depot Town. Festival streets' sidewalks and curbs are flush with the road and can easily be closed to offer a better environment for pedestrians during festivals. Similarly, the plan proposes raising Michigan Avenue in downtown to be level with the sidewalks to provide the same access.
“It’s another approach to try to make the city more walkable and increase vitality in downtown districts,” Gillotti said. “It’s more accessible this way, and there’s easier flow from street to businesses.”
Redevelopment
The proposed plan offers a design for Water Street that would create a downtown atmosphere throughout the 38-acre site and including requiring sidewalks, on-street parking and buildings designed for multiple uses. The buildings would be required to have large front windows and parking lots in the rear, and blocks would be short - limited to a 1,200-foot perimeter.
“It would look and feel like a downtown street,” said Masson-Minnock.
Another key feature of the master plan is a change to form-based zoning. While current zoning can change even mid-block in some areas for no obvious reason, form-based zoning would provide consistent zoning throughout major corridors and different neighborhoods.
For example, the corridor running north on North Huron Street between Michigan Avenue and Cross Street and north on Cross Street to Pearl Street is what planners called a historic district corridor.
It is mostly comprised of historic houses that are used for single-family housing or small businesses. While current zoning is patchy there, form-based zoning would provide a contiguous zone where the buildings and lots are similar.
Gillotti said form-based zoning is advantageous to an older, built city because traditional zoning limits uses in areas where there needs to be multiple uses in a home or building. It also helps keep housing more uniform in neighborhoods throughout the city.
Job Creation
The proposed plan also includes ideas designed to spur job growth. The West Industrial Park at South Mansfield Street and Michigan Avenue could be zoned to allow smaller lots, which would allow parcel owners to split their lots and fit more businesses there.
The same type of idea is proposed for the Angstrom site, which is the former Visteon plant.
New zoning would allow for different types of businesses - be it commercial, manufacturing or industrial - that would create more of a “job center” than a traditional business park or industrial park
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The city wants to foster small, locally-owned craft businesses, which are an increasingly integral part of the Michigan economy, through economic incentives.
“We could keep encouraging those small businesses to move here. We have small spaces available, and they gravitate to Ypsi because we are open-minded, so we want to keep attracting them and having them growing and expanding here,” Gillotti said.
The plan also suggests possibly rezoning the former MotorWheel and current Bay Logistics site north of Depot Town, which Gillotti said she expects will see more housing development pressure once the commuter train is running and EMU keeps growing.
Murdock said he liked the idea but didn’t want the plan to lock the city into transforming its few remaining industrial zones into residential zones.
“If someone wants to build a steel manufacturing plant there, I’m fine with that,” he said.
But one of the advantages of the plan is its flexibility, GIllotti said.
Ypsilanti's 'Guiding Values'
“We’re looking ahead at where we’re going to be in 10 to 20 years, but if the plan doesn’t totally fit, then can fall back on guiding values to help you through the major decisions that are being made,” Minock said.
The “guiding values” that staff, elected officials and planning commissioners can look to in the future sum up the kind of community Ypsilanti residents told planners during input sessions it sees itself as and strives to be.
Per public input, the most important value when considering a decision is safety. Cultural and economic diversity and the city’s sustainability are among its biggest approaches to functioning.
The city sees itself as friendly to business, especially the creative economy and green businesses; and the city strives to offer a complete transportation system with options for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and those utilizing public transportation.
A rubric with a series of questions asking whether or not a proposed change - a rezoning for example, or building a roundabout - fits in with serves as a guide in the decision making process
.
“Unlike other master plans, we tried to make ours while being more aware that we can’t predict the future,” Gillottis said. At the point it’s less releveant still have guiding values determine how to provide future requests for rezonings at that point things can evaluated using guiding values
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Tom Perkins is a freelance reporter. Contact the AnnArbor.com news desk at news@annarbor.com. |
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Mon Aug 26, 2013 6:41 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Not only is Flint's plan lacking in the specifics regarding zoning and other land use issues, the administration is currently implementing plans developed for downtown, Kettering, Chevy in the hole, U of M and others. These plans include the land use concepts described in Ypsilanti's Master Plan.
I have seen plans for the now open space where Heartland Manor stood. I have seen drawings of the proposed replacement Hamilton Avenue Dam. There re 2 concept drawing for possible redevelopment along the River between the two universities.
These concepts and plans exist, just not in our Master Plan. However the demolitions that will help create the ill defined green environmental corridors that encompass most of central portion of the north end are just beginning. |
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Mon Aug 26, 2013 6:50 am |
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Raymond Sist
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
untanglingwebs schreef:
Master plans can only suggest what will happen 10 years at best. To tell the north end their vision is more than 20 to 30 years in the future is to tell them they don't
matter.
Well, it looks like you finally caught on. Us North Enders have known for some time that the "chosen few" downtown couldn't care less about us. |
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Mon Aug 26, 2013 6:51 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Genesee Towers agreement reveals broader plan for downtown Flint area
Kristin Longley | klongley1@mlive.com By Kristin Longley | klongley1@mlive.com
Follow on Twitter
on August 18, 2012 at 7:00 AM
FLINT, MI -- Demolishing the Genesee Towers building to make way for a downtown urban plaza is part of a broader multimillion-dollar redevelopment proposal for the surrounding area, documents show.
The development agreement that details plans for Uptown Reinvestment Corp. to tear down Genesee Towers also says Uptown is exploring other nearby revitalization projects, including the possible relocation of the Flint Farmers Market, technology incubator labs and other programs.
The targeted area includes the former Flint Journal building, press facility and two nearby parking lots, according to the agreement.
The document states Uptown has obtained, or will make an effort to obtain, more than $30 million for the proposed redevelopment projects, including more than $4 million for demolition and asbestos removal at the Genesee Towers site.
Uptown President Tim Herman declined to comment on the Genesee Towers agreement through a spokeswoman, saying the deal hasn't been finalized.
"(Uptown) had proposed and intends to convert the property (Genesee Towers) to an urban plaza for the purpose of strengthening and revitalizing the community and economy," the agreement says.
Herman has said previously that the nearby former Flint Journal building would be an ideal place for Michigan State University to locate its forthcoming Flint campus of the College of Human Medicine.
The agreement states Uptown is committed to advancing the Towers demolition and MSU project, and is "exploring various reuses" of the former Flint Journal property for related MSU programs as well as "technology incubator labs, the relocation of the Flint Farmers Market and other downtown revitalization projects."
Uptown owns the Flint Farmers Market, currently located just north of 5th Avenue near the Flint River, and Herman has said that moving it to the old Journal property is one of many possible reuses for the site.
The development agreement for the Towers states that if Uptown decides to relocate the market, the city of Flint agrees not to promote or sponsor any other farmers market in the city.
The agreement also mentions two parking lots owned by the Downtown Development Authority that "would be useful to the proposed redevelopment." The gated lots are adjacent to Genesee Towers at the corner of Harrison and Second Streets, next to the Wade Trim Building.
"The lots would be required to be used exclusively for public and charitable purposes" if the DDA were to sell them to Uptown, the agreement says.
DDA Director Gerard Burnash said he is aware of Uptown's interest in the lots as stated in the agreement, and the DDA board plans to discuss the issue at its next meeting on Wednesday. No decisions have been made, he said.
"Which direction they'll go, I have no idea," he said.
Flint's former emergency manager Michael Brown recently agreed to sell Genesee Towers to Uptown for $1, on the condition that Uptown demolishes the structure and creates a plaza for public use, according to the agreement signed by Brown and Herman.
The property transfer is contingent upon an inspection of the property and other "due diligence" activities.
Brown also committed $750,000 of Flint's federal community development grant money for the demolition.
Brown signed the agreement without public notice just days before he was replaced by a new emergency financial manager, which has sparked criticism from city council members and some residents about the lack of public input into the decision.
Flint taxpayers were charged an extra 6.7 mills on their 2010 winter tax bill to pay for a nearly $9 million legal judgment on the Towers after the city was court-ordered to take ownership of the building.
Flint resident Flora Bray had some choice words about it on Thursday as she visited Flint City Hall.
"I'm (ticked) off about it," she said, shaking her head. "The taxpayers had to pay for it and they sold it for a dollar. That's not right."
But Flint resident Raymond O'Mara said it might be nice to see a plaza that attracts people to the area, instead of an unused building sitting vacant.
"When was the last time anyone was in it?" he said. "As long as something gainful comes out of it, instead of an eyesore, I would support it."
Brown, who is now city administrator, said the building is a liability that could end up costing the city even more money if someone were to get hurt because of it. Cement barriers surround the 19-story building because of reports of falling debris.
Still, some residents say they would have liked to see the Towers, Flint's tallest building, redeveloped. The deal prompted a prominent Flint pastor, the Rev. Reginald Flynn, to organize a protest unless the city agrees not to use grant dollars for the demolition.
Resident Twyla Day, 43, said the Towers is one of Flint's most notable structures.
"They should have renovated it," she said. "That's a waste. There's a lot of things they could have done. It's been there forever." |
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Mon Aug 26, 2013 7:02 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Mon Aug 26, 2013 7:05 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Charles Stewart Mott FoundationCharles Stewart Mott Foundation
Grantee Login | Subscribe to Mott News | Contact Us
January 05, 2010
Policy: Planning can provide new paths for change
By ANN RICHARDS
[Editors note: This article is one of several contained in the Mott Foundation 2008 Annual Report ]
The year 2008 was another good one for the Genesee County Land Bank. Working with the Mott Foundation and other philanthropic, federal, state, private and municipal organizations, the Land Bank began redeveloping the historic, but long-abandoned Durant Hotel in downtown Flint into 93 loft-style apartments, designed to appeal to students and faculty at nearby colleges and universities.
The $23-million project, which includes a $2-million grant from Mott, represents both a physical and psychological boost for the entire Flint area, which is struggling to create new pathways to reinvigorate its economy, improve the overall quality of living and “right-size” the city’s physical boundaries.
Durant Hotel lobby
The decaying Durant Hotel has stood empty in downtown Flint since 1973.
The soon-to-be-renovated hotel, symbolic of Flint’s decline for more than three decades since it closed in 1973, now is emblematic of the cooperation, planning and physical improvements that are beginning to reshape and strengthen the central city.
“Now it serves a great connector for our community,” said Daniel Kildee, Genesee County treasurer and chairman of the Land Bank. The 90-year-old building sits at the center of four land-use plans for the downtown Flint area created with Mott support by Sasaki Associates Inc., of Watertown, Massachusetts. The Durant project is helping create a “university corridor” linking downtown with the city’s cultural center and three major educational institutions.
The Sasaki plans -- produced from 2001 to 2003 -- have helped guide decisionmaking for several major institutions that have stakes in creating a more livable, vital central city in the Foundation’s home community. They also have helped provoke conversations that buttress the connections that are beginning to occur between and among the institutions and their physical environments.
The Foundation’s interest in pursuing policies that would help its hometown transition to a post-industrial economy started more than 20 years ago, as automotive manufacturing jobs began leaving the area.
Pursuing policies that help people and communities work together to resolve complicated problems cuts to the heart of Mott’s grantmaking -- in Flint and across the globe. From its earliest years, Mott has focused on policy change, initially by expanding the use of public school buildings in Flint through an extended school day. Before- and after-school programming, considered revolutionary in the 1930s, now is common in schools across the world.
Grants that help individuals rethink their approach to a problem and develop a plan of action are just one strategy for crafting effective policy. Mott also makes grants to encourage best practices, test model programs and disseminate research. In Flint, where the Foundation has an 82-year commitment to place-based grantmaking, it has had the opportunity to encourage effective policy by making grants over long periods of time to a set of strong educational, cultural and nonprofit institutions.
The Land Bank is one of the most widely recognized of the Mott-supported policy reform efforts in its home community. Recipient of Harvard University’s Innovations in American Government Award in 2007, the Land Bank currently serves as a national model for reshaping policy and planning in distressed cities.
Mott’s support for land banking dates to 1997, when a grant was made to the Hudson Institute to develop a broad framework around urban land-use policy, which ultimately led to the development of Michigan’s Public Act 123. The legislation enabled county governments to move tax-delinquent property through the forfeiture, foreclosure and sale process within a 25-month period. Since then, the Foundation has provided more than $1 million to develop a land bank model for Michigan and other municipalities to replicate or adapt.
Flint’s Mott Middle/Early College High School (MMEC), the first multidistrict, middle college high school in the country, is another Mott-funded project that has had local and national policy impact.
“At Mott, higher education begins in high school,” said Chery Wagonlander, longtime principal of the middle college high school, a Mott grantee since 1993. “Our goal is to eliminate the gaps between high school and college.”
Kettering University students and professor
Two Kettering University professors talk with students.
MMEC, located on the campus of Flint’s Mott Community College, has been pioneering the early college model for 18 years, helping to launch 16 early college high schools across the country. The school graduated its first “13th year” class -- 40 students dually enrolled in both high school and community college classes -- in 2009. Each dual-enrolled student graduated from high school with college credit -- several with enough to earn a two-year associate’s degree.
MMEC has been selected as a model for replication by the national early college initiative and the Michigan Department of Education. Through its Center for Middle and Early College in Michigan, funded in 2008 with a multiyear, $700,000 Mott grant, the school will serve as the hub for research and implementation related to middle and early college high schools, with a focus on Michigan school districts participating in a state initiative to open 12 early colleges by 2011.
Mott also provided $199,250 in direct support for the Genesee Early College on the University of Michigan-Flint campus, one of the first of the state’s new early colleges to be opened.
Across town, Kettering University is using Mott funding to build a successful future for itself and its home community.
Kettering, a Mott grantee since 1983 when its name was General Motors Institute, is using grant dollars -- $2 million in 2008 -- to launch a multiyear series of strategic initiatives aimed at increasing the enrollment of engineering students who will have a hand in shaping the economic future of the Midwest, including distressed communities such as Flint.
Across the country, engineering schools are competing for a diminishing number of students interested in the sciences and working to diversify the pool of existing applicants. The Mott grant will enable Kettering to institute a wide range of recruiting strategies and provide tuition merit scholarships for qualified students.
Mott stepped up its support to the university in 1982, after the school separated from General Motors Corporation. One of the top 20 undergraduate engineering schools in the country, Kettering has received more than $23 million in capital, endowment and operating support from Mott.
As the only fully co-op engineering and management university in the U.S., Kettering combines practical experience in the workplace with academic study in mechanical, electrical, computer, industrial and manufacturing systems engineering; and in applied mathematics, environmental chemistry, computer science, applied physics and management systems. The students’ presence at their co-op placements provides Kettering with ongoing, consistent relationships with a diverse set of businesses in the automotive, plastics, bio-engineering, medical device, management, finance, chemical and metallurgy fields.
These relationships are especially important to Flint, which is not only seeking to transition from a manufacturing to a knowledge-based economy, but also striving to increase the number of locally owned businesses.
“We want to recover the entrepreneurial spirit that flourished along the Flint River 100 years ago,” said Stanley R. Liberty, Kettering’s president. The university has inaugurated a four-year initiative to train faculty to incorporate entrepreneurial skills across its curriculum.
Kettering also has created high-end laboratory, business incubation and business commercialization space within the C.S. Mott Engineering and Science Center Building -- constructed in 2000 with $7 million in Mott funding. In 2006, Mott provided $542,966 in matching funds to launch Kettering’s Fuel Cells and Advanced Technologies Commercialization Incubator to help emerging businesses seeking to commercialize high-tech products and services.
Anchoring the western end of Flint’s new university corridor, Kettering also is using $251,141 in Mott funding to create a campus that is more vibrant and attractive to students. Working with the Land Bank, the university has acquired a number of blighted properties that have been cleared and green-spaced for future campus expansion. Ultimately, Kettering hopes to increase the density of student housing on campus with spillover down the university corridor to downtown
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Taken together, these Mott-funded initiatives illustrate the painstaking amount of time -- often decades -- commitment and dollars needed to help a community break from the familiar and begin to effect the policy changes that will help restructure the future.
Developing and implementing good policy is a hallmark of successful communities, but it is complicated work and holds no guarantee of success. In Flint, current conditions have created no choice but change -- presenting the Foundation with an ongoing and important opportunity to determine how strategic grantmaking can help move a community forward.
Paving a new path for town and gown
Although it’s just 1,300 feet long, the new East Kearsley Street “connector” is having a major impact on pedestrian and vehicular traffic in downtown Flint. By linking the University of Michigan-Flint campus and the central business district with the Flint Cultural Center and Mott Community College, the reopened street creates an easy route that eliminates a physical barrier between town and gown.
Kearsley corridor
Dancers attending the Joffrey Ballet's Midwest Summer Intensive Workshop use the East Kearsley Street "connector" to walk from UM-Flint to the Flint Cultural Center.
“It’s a very simple idea -- its power comes from its symbolism -- acknowledging the need to open up the university to the larger community,” said Jack Kay, who was interim chancellor of UM-Flint in 2008, when the work on the connector was begun and completed with a grant of $1,891,588 from the Mott Foundation. (Kay now is provost and executive vice president of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.)
For many years, Flint’s downtown -- like many in the U.S. -- was marginalized by the growth of suburban commerce; inferior land-use planning; and poor decisions regarding zoning, parking and traffic flow. Recognizing that the central city could have the assets to make it attractive to students and residents, the Foundation made a grant to UM-Flint to undertake a campus master plan to tie the downtown and university to the cultural center to the east and Kettering University to the west. It was one of four such plans by Sasaki Associates Inc. that Mott funded between 2001 and 2003 at a total cost of $1,074,300.
Prior to the reopening of the Kearsley Street connector, the cultural center -- a 30-acre, park-like complex of seven arts and cultural institutions -- existed as a separate sphere from the campus and downtown. Building off the notion of creating a “university corridor” running from Kettering through downtown and UM-Flint to the cultural center and Mott Community College, the four master plans helped cement those connections in 2008, when W. Third Avenue (another east-west connector) was rechristened University Avenue.
The new physical link went hand-in-hand with programmatic collaborations that began in 2001 among the institutions, including articulation agreements, friendly competitions and College Town, a program that has attracted more than 2,600 student memberships to the Flint Institute of Arts.
“The various physical connections underscore and validate the spirit of collaboration that was happening between the campuses, the city and the cultural center,” said Stanley R. Liberty, Kettering president.
One of the most psychologically significant boosts to downtown Flint’s regeneration was the 2008 dedication of UM-Flint’s long-anticipated First Street Residence Hall. Graced with a permanent student presence, the campus and downtown are benefiting from this new vitality.
“It’s only 300-plus beds, but the magnitude of change it has brought is stupendous,” Kay said.
Mott also supported the renovation of the Berridge and Durant hotels -- formerly blighted properties along the northern edge of downtown. Targeting young professionals and the more than 30,000 college students attending Flint’s various colleges and universities, the refurbished properties will provide more than 120 loft-style apartments as well as street-level commercial space.
In 2008, the Foundation also provided support for the purchase and renovation of another closed downtown hotel, the former Character Inn, now the Riverfront Residence Hall, which will house up to 550 students when completed.
The Foundation has supported the construction or renovation of several commercial and residential buildings along Flint’s historic, brick main street. In 2008, the new Wade-Trim Building opened and the Community Foundation of Greater Flint moved into two rehabilitated buildings, bringing new life, commerce and jobs to a block of shuttered buildings.
“These physical connections -- they’re symbolic of things this community has been hoping for and working on for a long time,” said Cindy Ornstein, CEO of the Flint Cultural Center Corporation. “These relationships are enabling us to move forward together.”
- See more at: http://www.mott.org/news/news/2010/08ARpolicy.aspx#sthash.eqwRPcSV.dpuf |
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Mon Aug 26, 2013 7:26 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Community Planning Projects
Harbor Springs Downtown Vision Plan City of Harbor Springs Downtown Vision Plan
Seeking to enhance their downtown area, the City of Harbor Springs developed a Downtown Vision Plan that will provide a wide range of living, dining, recreation and employment opportunities for multiple generations in this Michigan waterfront community. Wade Trim, with assistance from livingLab and Danna Widmar, led a four-day visioning process to gain input from more than 500 community members through focus group meetings and design workshops. Key plan recommendations include strengthening the DDA, changing zoning and parking requirements, improving public spaces and better connecting the downtown and waterfront areas. The Plan will serve as a valuable guide for pursuing funding for implementation of the City’s downtown enhancement strategies.
Hillsborough County 5-Year Consolidated Plan Hilsborough County Five-Year Consolidated Plan
Hillsborough County's Five-Year (2011-2016) CDBG Consolidated Plan is intended to create a viable urban community that offers decent affordable housing, a suitable living environment and expanding economic opportunities, especially for low- and moderate-income persons. With a population of nearly 1.2 million, Hillsborough is the largest County in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area and the fourth most populous in Florida. Critical community development priorities were identified through an extensive community involvement process that included meetings with various neighborhood and community groups.
Frankfort Master Plan and Zoning Code City of Frankfort Master Plan and Hybrid Zoning Code
To preserve a variety of sensitive natural and cultural resources and retain the character of the community, the City of Frankfort, MI, worked with Wade Trim to create a new Master Plan and Zoning Ordinance with form-based regulations. Wade Trim facilitated a day-long vision fair workshop and a week-long design workshop that created a new vision and established the parameters for the new Master Plan and Hybrid Zoning Code. A broad collection of stakeholders were involved in developing new form-based guidelines for each of the nine new zoning districts as well as complete street designs for each type of street within the City to make the community more accessible for pedestrians and cyclists.
Flint Riverfront Restoration Plan Flint Riverfront Restoration Plan
An award-winning master plan of design improvements was created for approximately two miles of riverfront land in the City of Flint, MI, as well as planning and design recommendations for modifications to a failing dam structure. The Plan provides a vision that will transform the riverfront from a neglected resource into a healthy and vibrant community asset. The vision calls for the rejuvenation of the river and riverfront by fusing the technical elements of flood control with ecological restoration, public open space design, recreational boating and redevelopment of underutilized land. This plan provides a series of design interventions that will enable a strong physical relationship between the Flint River and the built environment that surrounds it, through the creation of engaging and accessible green edges.
Durand DDA Design Guidelines Durand DDA Design Guidelines
Desiring a consistent look for development, the City of Durand’s DDA created design guidelines for the DDA District. An assessment of the downtown’s existing character was conducted followed by a visual preference survey for citizens and stakeholders. These tools provided the foundation for developing recommended architectural and site design standards. Wade Trim continues to work with the DDA to develop suggested standards on placement of buildings, pedestrian movement, parking, exterior wall materials, and other elements. The intent is to encourage revitalization, support creativity, and encourage consumer activity by establishing a sense of place.
Davison Township DDA Pattern Book Davison Township DDA Pattern Book
The Davison Township DDA is in the midst of an ambitious plan for public improvements that include road widening and capacity increases, bridge repairs, non-motorized trail and sidewalks, water and sewer infrastructure, stormwater system improvements, recreational improvements, public facility and service improvements, and various streetscape and beautification projects. As part of this plan, the DDA embarked on a process to establish a unified design theme for the public realm of the business district, through development of a Pattern Book. This Pattern Book serves as a foundation for all proposed public improvement projects within the DDA District and features a wayfinding system.
Milford Community Master Plan Milford Community Master Plan
The neighboring Michigan communities of the Village of Milford and Charter Township of Milford have developed a strong and mutually-beneficial relationship. Building upon this, the communities embarked on a planning process to create a more relevant and efficient Master Plan that maximizes the benefits to each community. A unified set of goals and objectives as well as a community-wide Future Land Use Plan were formulated using a process that incorporated a variety of opportunities for citizen contribution. The Plan was complimented by a Green Infrastructure Plan that focused on the preservation of natural features and a Building Regulating Plan that outlined the building placement and public realm standards for the village center.
©2000-2013 Wade Trim ~ 313.961.3650
500 Griswold Avenue, Suite 2500, Detroit, MI 48226
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