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LFj] <br /> commuNitwy <br /> UPRON"Vil <br /> I N S T I T U T E <br /> Toll Free 866.900.3064 Fax 866.924.1928 <br /> MEMO <br /> Date: June 9, 2011 <br /> To: Pequot Lakes Planning Commission <br /> From: Charles Marohn, City Planner <br /> Re: Downtown Plan and Related Initiatives <br /> In reviewing the notes and feedback from your last meeting(which I, unfortunately, <br /> was not able to be at), and with the City Council's inability to move ahead with the <br /> Comprehensive Plan, I decided to approach the discussion on the Downtown Plan a <br /> little bit differently this month. <br /> What you will find is the beginning of a draft that looks dramatically different than <br /> what we have been working with for half a decade.There are three specific reasons <br /> for this: <br /> 1. We're all reacting to a plan from a different era. For us to move ahead with <br /> something relevant, I think we need an entirely new syntax and <br /> understanding that is more in touch with the times. In short, our debate needs <br /> to move. <br /> 2. What happens in the downtown can no longer just be about the downtown <br /> and the business owners along Government Drive. A study and plan for the <br /> downtown needs to include not just the commercial areas but the parks, the <br /> highway corridor and the neighborhoods adjacent to the downtown. The <br /> current draft looks at the downtown as if it were in a bubble. It is not, and I <br /> fear we will waste our time if we do not broaden our discussion. <br /> 3. We are working on other initiatives simultaneously that must inform and be <br /> informed by this effort. Parks planning, walkability analysis and expansion of <br /> the Grow Zone all fall into this realm. <br /> It is painfully apparent -and I know I risk offending some with this observation -that <br /> parts of the City government are operating in the 2004/2005 paradigm where <br /> WWW.COMMUNITYGROWTH.COM WWW.$TRONGTOWNS.ORG <br />