Community members gathered at The Commons on Thursday night to take part in the first large-scale community workshop for the city’s new downtown strategic plan.
Urban planning and design firm Sasaki is taking the lead in the plan’s development and partnering with firms SB Friedman and Storyboard in the process.
The plan, dubbed Downtown Columbus 2030, is expected to set forth a vision that can be actionable within a timeline of five to 10 years, informed by community feedback, city officials have said. It will look for ways to revitalize and activate the city’s downtown, while accounting for a changed climate in the area after the pandemic.
The plan is set to have a more narrow focus than 2018’s Envision Columbus downtown plan, which led to some implementation but was largely encumbered due to changing dynamics caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to redevelopment.
Although it will have a smaller footprint, the plan will include more available buildings and spaces for consideration comparatively. Downtown Columbus 2030 is to incorporate information derived from other recent city endeavors, including its new housing study and ongoing redesign of the city’s downtown entrance plaza.
The primary objective is to identify the best use of more than 20 individual parcels identified as critical, according to a copy of a request for proposals for the plan, made up of several owned by the Columbus Redevelopment Commission such as the former Sears Building and adjoining parking lot, current project areas including the riverfront and downtown entrance plaza and parcels identified as future project opportunities including the Irwin Block Building site.
Those who weren’t able to attend are encouraged to provide their thoughts through a survey. That and more information can be found at the online home for the plan at downtowncolumbus2030.com. Organizers said the survey will remain open until March 3 at midnight, and encouraged people to register their email on the site to stay up to date.
The three firms are currently in their analysis and needs assessment phase, the second of five that will result in a new plan for downtown by June.
Going forward the planning team will generate different growth and investment scenarios for the downtown based on community input, followed by a settled-upon preferred plan for strategic investments and projects, culminating with guidance for plan implementation, Chris Freda, senior associate planner at Sasaki told the crowd gathered.
“How do we take these great ideas and start to phase them, prioritize them, and put in place actionable steps that allow you all to start accomplishing this work and implementing these projects,” Freda said. “… We’re laser-focused on implementation as part of this planning process, we want to hand you a plan and a strategy that you can start to make progress on right away, something that’s really useful within the next several years as we implement the recommendations.”
The Columbus Redevelopment Commission on Oct. 21 approved funding in an amount not to exceed $464,820 to go towards the three firms for their work.
“We just want to make sure that it’s a downtown where can can create new memories, that we can attract new people, that we can show people that Columbus is really unique and what we have to offer is really unique,” Mayor Mary Ferdon said in remarks at the beginning of the workshop. “… That’s what the goal is today, is that you help us figure out what it should look like.”
“We are committed to this study, and we are committed to the implementation of as much of this study as we can because this is your voice and this is what you want to see the community look like,” Ferdon continued.
Indianapolis-based Storyboard’s focus is on community engagement and have already conducted various pop-up events, while SB Friedman represents the “analytical arm of the team” focused on making sure the strategies provided in the downtown plan are achievable in the market, according to redevelopment.
The team’s engagement with the Columbus community began with some of the city’s December events including A Not So Silent Night and Columbus Festival of Lights. The team has also conducted interviews with downtown merchants and local neighborhood groups including the Historic Downtown Neighborhood Alliance.
Bonnie Boatwright, plan project manager, said that the group intends to stop by the AirPark Campus soon with some pizzas to talk to students in hopes of hearing ideas for what young people would like to do downtown. They also plan to attend some of the many Black History Month Events as part of an effort to meet stakeholders, city officials have said.
The updated downtown strategic plan is to address the following questions:
• How do we build a downtown where people want to be?
• How do we maximize the use of the spaces and places downtown?
• What gaps do we have downtown, and how do we address those gaps?
Before the workshop got started in earnest, Martin Zogran, principal and urban designer at Sasaki, discussed how activity in the downtown has dropped off, with a 15% reduction in daily visits to the area between 2019 and 2023 and a nearly 40% cut in the number of daily employees downtown in that time period, according to an analysis by SB Friedman.
Attendees filled out a ‘passport’ with basic demographic information, followed by queries about the frequency with which someone comes downtown, questions about what one likes to do downtown, along with general perceptions of the area and how it’s change since the pandemic.
Led by a facilitator, groups of community members considered different downtown activities, how useful the downtown currently is for them and ranked each one in terms of personal preference.
At tables groups discussed activities broken down into five categories: daily duties (running errands), local hotspots, regional destinations (distinctive places that aren’t found in every town or small city), inspiring moments (institutions, installations, events that celebrate learning, cultural history and diversity) and community connections, meaning connective infrastructure improving the experience of getting around downtown.
How important attendees view each of the aforementioned potential downtown elements were to be ranked, and then everyone came together to share what each table had thought. Votes were also tallied by way of stickers that were placed next to specific ideas. The passports were collected after and officials said data will be compiled and later uploaded to downtowncolumbus2030.com reflecting the community’s input.
Once everyone reconvened, microphones were passed around to representatives from each table to talk about what types of things rose to the top of each discussion.
Some common refrains included that there’s too few things to do downtown, especially considering the changed landscape of retail. A downtown grocery store, multi-cultural center and third space for impromptu gatherings were some specific wishes. A music venue, and expanded public transportation were some others, along with an expanded farmer’s market.
Another larger community input session will come later on sometime in the spring in the April to May range, officials said.