From: Liz Parham [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 4:19 PM
To: Gordon Sutherland
Subject: Comprehensive Plan comments

 

Gordon – Thank you for taking the time to pull out excerpts from the comprehensive plan for our review.  Whereas we believe that the goals and objectives are still relevant to downtown, there are some details that are extremely important to downtown�s overall success that appear to be missing in the plan.  Please review the list below and whereas we may be giving you more detail than you were looking for, we feel we would be remiss in not sharing this level of detail as it relates to downtown issues.  Please let me know if you have questions and again, thank you!

 

Downtown Safety –  Downtown Safety should be an overriding theme of anything related to downtown.  Programming should be planned and implemented that will provide an increase in both real and perceived safety for all individuals downtown, with an emphasis on women and children.

  1. Streetscape should be designed to provide maximum safety, including an increase in the number of lights and the intensity of the light levels in all of downtown.
  2. There should also be an emphasis on providing sidewalk connections throughout downtown, especially on Rosemary Street.
  3. Connectivity between Franklin Street and Rosemary Street should be encouraged wherever possible and these connectors should be well lit, safe, and well marked.
  4. Better lighting in parking facilities is also needed.
  5. Technology should be incorporated into public safety where appropriate and where there is an ability to do so.
  6. An increase in police presence should remain as a priority of the comprehensive plan.

Downtown Cleanliness

  1. Services should be funded to increase the level of cleanliness in downtown through an increase in the frequency of collection.
  2. Alternative collection operations should be considered with an emphasis on the business uses and the type of collection required. (For example: 3:00 a.m. recycled after the bars have closed)

Downtown Social Issues

  1. Policies should be adopted that support the rights of individuals but not at the financial expense of downtown businesses and the safety expense of downtown visitors, therefore, policies related to panhandling, loitering, homelessness should be reviewed and considered as a part of the comprehensive plan.

Public Spaces

  1. There should be an emphasis on designing the public spaces with little to no maintenance and with visionary thought on how the public spaces may be used, therefore:
  2. Streetscape elements should be designed as to not impede with the pedestrian flow, to include the ability to water the greenery that is planted in the planters, and to include outlets in the planters and elsewhere downtown.
  3. Greenspace or public parks should be designed the same way, with watering capabilities and with electrical capabilities.
  4. Technology should be incorporated into public spaces where appropriate and where there is the ability to do so in an effort to transcend downtown into the 21st century and make it more user friendly.
  5. Downtown has traditionally served as the place where communication about local, state, and national issues were announced, therefore, public spaces should be designed and managed to serve as a place to convey information, whether it is a lightpole that holds both flags and banners, or a plaza or park area that is designed as a place for people to gather, perhaps with seating or electricity, etc.

Semi-Public Spaces

  1. Rosemary and Franklin Street connectors may be public or private but they serve as public corridors.  There should be a cooperative public private partnership approach to these corridors to improve safety, accessibility, lighting, wayfinding and cleanliness.
  2. Parks and Greenspaces may be on public or on private land, but serve as semi public space.  There should be a cooperative public private partnership approach to these spaces  to improve safety, accessibility, lighting, wayfinding and cleanliness.

Community-wide use and community celebrations in downtown

  1. Special consideration should be given to large groups that desire to use downtown for community-wide functions but may otherwise avoid downtown due to parking, etc.  Incentives, whether it be free parking or something more, should be considered to help promote downtown as a desirable place to hold community functions.

Transportation – Parking

  1. Technology should be incorporated into parking where there is an ability to do so to make parking more user-friendly.
  2. Short term public parking should be managed in such a way as to serve as an economic development tool.
  3. Long-term employee parking (both for daytime and nighttime employees) should be developed and managed as an economic development tool.
  4. Utilize on-street parking as short-term convenience parking and maximize (add back) on-street parking in all sections of Franklin Street.
  5. Encourage a cooperative public and private parking management strategy that promotes shared use and offer incentives for this.
  6. Promote parking through a wayfinding system that makes it easy to visit downtown Chapel Hill.
  7. Parking attendants should participate in visitor services training and should serve as an ambassador to educate the public about downtown parking in a friendly way.

Downtown Development Incentives

  1. The comprehensive plan refers to incentives to quicken the review process and our organization strongly encourages that this language remain.
  2. Inaddition, we would advocate for additional incentives that may be in the form of grants, low interest loans, or tax credits that encourage developers to develop mixed-use, residential development, 1st floor retail development, and upper-story redevelopment, etc.
  3. Vacant property is not addressed in the comprehensive plan and whereas you cannot force a private property owner to do anything with their property, we recommend including language that will offer incentives to property owners that fill their property with appropriate uses within one year.
  4. We would encourage language in the comprehensive that supports encouraging and managing utilization of vacant storefront windows for art and cultural advertisement and exhibits, advertising upcoming downtown development projects, etc.  Vacant storefront windows can be a great tool for spurring interest and excitement in the downtown revitalization process.

Public Utilities

  1. Public assistance should be given to downtown developers that encourage burying utility lines for lower maintenance and higher environmental appeal of downtown.

 

 

Elizabeth H. Parham, CMSM
Executive Director
Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership
308 West Rosemary Street,  Suite 202
Chapel Hill, NC  27516
Phone:  919-967-9440
Fax:      919-967-9475
E-mail: [email protected]