Create a dynamic core for downtown Phoenix
Jul. 5, 2006 12:00 AM
Arizona Republic
It's the next big step to a livable downtown, to a better Phoenix.
The new Downtown Phoenix Urban Form Project will lay out the practical strategies to create a dynamic core for the nation's fifth-largest city. And it will simplify the massive, often overlapping zoning rules that can tie up progress in red tape.
The project may sound wonkish. But this is an exciting enterprise that will affect the economic vitality of the entire region.
Just ask the hundreds of people who came to the Orpheum Theatre last Thursday to hear Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon kick off the project. They know this is the crucial bridge to get a bustling downtown Phoenix from vision to reality.
Some 18 months ago, the city of Phoenix released its "Strategic Vision and Blueprint for the Future." It was an uplifting vision, outlining a 24/7 downtown that would be lively, vibrant, neighborly and inviting, both an economic engine and an entertainment mecca. A place where you could live comfortably and take your relatives when they visit or bring the kids on a Saturday afternoon.
For all its recent improvements, for all the construction activity (including a new convention center, work on a light-rail system and a convention hotel on the way), even Gordon concedes: "Downtown's a place where 30,000 people work five days a week, but no more than 500 are on the street at any one time."
There's too much vacant land. Too much steel and concrete and too little shade. It's a hot place for pedestrians and a cold one for urban dwellers. There are too few parks, public spaces, small shops, grocery stores and dry cleaners to create real neighborhoods.
We need to do better.
"We want people to want to be downtown, not just because they have to be here," Gordon said in unveiling the urban form project.
What's more, given the current hodgepodge of building codes, zoning regulations, design standards and special-district overlays, Phoenix needs to be an easier place to do business.
It needs a way to get where it wants to go.
"Your zoning code isn't written to get you what you want," observed Leslie Gould, a planner from the San Francisco consulting firm of Dyett & Bhatia.
The next step?
The Downtown Phoenix Urban Form Project.
A first-rate team, led by the city's Planning Department and Dyett & Bhatia, will use public meetings, wide-ranging local interviews and detailed analysis to translate the overarching vision of downtown into the nuts and bolts of building setbacks and park locations. They'll also work on a matching zoning code.
The project, which is expected to take 18 months and cost $800,000, got a crucial initial push from Phoenix Planning Director Debra Stark. A longtime champion of shade and urban livability, city planner Dean Brennan, is overseeing the effort.
Local partners include architect Dan Hoffman's Studio Ma, landscape designer Angela Dye, traffic engineers from Kimley-Horn, the Goodman-Schwartz public affairs firm and development attorney Grady Gammage.
But experts aren't enough. Continued community involvement will be critical.
Once completed, the plan and new zoning rules will only be as strong as the commitment from the City Council, planning staff and residents to implement them. Fortunately, the city is already making an effort to promote shade, walkability and the other goals that will be included in the ultimate urban form document.
"Phoenix has the opportunity to be one of the great downtowns, comparable to Seattle or Portland," Gould told the audience at the Orpheum Theatre.
In five to 10 years, that means we can enjoy cafes, one-of-a-kind shops and busy, well-shaded sidewalks. And even more choices for all kinds of entertainment.
We'll have thousands of people living downtown, including ASU students, high-tech workers and artists.
We're not there yet, but we've taken one big step toward that vision.
Arizona Republic
It's the next big step to a livable downtown, to a better Phoenix.
The new Downtown Phoenix Urban Form Project will lay out the practical strategies to create a dynamic core for the nation's fifth-largest city. And it will simplify the massive, often overlapping zoning rules that can tie up progress in red tape.
The project may sound wonkish. But this is an exciting enterprise that will affect the economic vitality of the entire region.
Just ask the hundreds of people who came to the Orpheum Theatre last Thursday to hear Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon kick off the project. They know this is the crucial bridge to get a bustling downtown Phoenix from vision to reality.
Some 18 months ago, the city of Phoenix released its "Strategic Vision and Blueprint for the Future." It was an uplifting vision, outlining a 24/7 downtown that would be lively, vibrant, neighborly and inviting, both an economic engine and an entertainment mecca. A place where you could live comfortably and take your relatives when they visit or bring the kids on a Saturday afternoon.
For all its recent improvements, for all the construction activity (including a new convention center, work on a light-rail system and a convention hotel on the way), even Gordon concedes: "Downtown's a place where 30,000 people work five days a week, but no more than 500 are on the street at any one time."
There's too much vacant land. Too much steel and concrete and too little shade. It's a hot place for pedestrians and a cold one for urban dwellers. There are too few parks, public spaces, small shops, grocery stores and dry cleaners to create real neighborhoods.
We need to do better.
"We want people to want to be downtown, not just because they have to be here," Gordon said in unveiling the urban form project.
What's more, given the current hodgepodge of building codes, zoning regulations, design standards and special-district overlays, Phoenix needs to be an easier place to do business.
It needs a way to get where it wants to go.
"Your zoning code isn't written to get you what you want," observed Leslie Gould, a planner from the San Francisco consulting firm of Dyett & Bhatia.
The next step?
The Downtown Phoenix Urban Form Project.
A first-rate team, led by the city's Planning Department and Dyett & Bhatia, will use public meetings, wide-ranging local interviews and detailed analysis to translate the overarching vision of downtown into the nuts and bolts of building setbacks and park locations. They'll also work on a matching zoning code.
The project, which is expected to take 18 months and cost $800,000, got a crucial initial push from Phoenix Planning Director Debra Stark. A longtime champion of shade and urban livability, city planner Dean Brennan, is overseeing the effort.
Local partners include architect Dan Hoffman's Studio Ma, landscape designer Angela Dye, traffic engineers from Kimley-Horn, the Goodman-Schwartz public affairs firm and development attorney Grady Gammage.
But experts aren't enough. Continued community involvement will be critical.
Once completed, the plan and new zoning rules will only be as strong as the commitment from the City Council, planning staff and residents to implement them. Fortunately, the city is already making an effort to promote shade, walkability and the other goals that will be included in the ultimate urban form document.
"Phoenix has the opportunity to be one of the great downtowns, comparable to Seattle or Portland," Gould told the audience at the Orpheum Theatre.
In five to 10 years, that means we can enjoy cafes, one-of-a-kind shops and busy, well-shaded sidewalks. And even more choices for all kinds of entertainment.
We'll have thousands of people living downtown, including ASU students, high-tech workers and artists.
We're not there yet, but we've taken one big step toward that vision.
posted by urbanliving360.com at 6:10 AM
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