Downtown Redevelopment

Let's Get Together

2008-12-04T23:00:00Z

We've set the date for the primary citizen participation opportunity for the Downtown Master Plan: Jan. 12-16.

Yes, you've read that right. It's not a day, it's an entire work week. Torti Gallas and its subconsultants will be holding a week-long charrette in the Community Room at the McConico Building, 301 W. Bagdad Ave.

"What the heck is a charrette?" you ask. A charrette is an intensive brainstorming session involving any number of people and lasting anywhere from a few hours to a few days; all are involved in defining problems and coming up with solutions for them.

In the architectural profession it has been a tradition -- ever since the Ecole des Beaux Arts sent a cart (charrette) around Paris to collect its students' work when the submission deadline was reached -- to call crash efforts at designing as being "en charrette." (The hard-pressed students, rather than surrender their designs, used to jump on the cart along with their drawings so that they might work on them a few minutes longer "on the cart," i.e., "en charrette.")

A successful charrette can accomplish several things, among them:

It engages everyone who has anything at all to do with the problem at hand in a creative manner, i.e. in the effort of creating solutions -- not reasons why this and that solution won't work.
It results in a comprehensive compilation of everyone's ideas, especially everyone's ideas on how to improve a situation.

Here are details about what to expect over the course of the charrette.

This could be the start of something big

2008-09-04T21:10:00Z

At long last, we've got our consulting team under contract and work on the Downtown Redevelopment and Expansion Master Plan is about to get under way.

The City Council approved a contract with the lead consulting firm on Aug. 28. The goal of the planning effort is to create a series of practical yet forward-thinking strategies to guide the future development and growth of the downtown area. The Plan will be environmentally responsible, respectful of the existing landscape and built environment, financially feasible, and visionary.

In addition to land use and design, the planning process includes an analysis of economic opportunities, transportation and utility infrastructure needs, and historic preservation issues associated with the redevelopment and expansion of the downtown area.

Torti Gallas is the lead firm for the effort. Sub-consultants are Economic Research Associates (economic analysis), Walter P. Moore Inc. (transportation engineering), Meléndrez (landscape architecture), Urban Design Group (civil engineering), Limbacher & Godfrey (historic preservation), and BWM Group (landscaping, way finding and local support).

The City hired consulting firm Glatting Jackson in 2007 to develop a scope of work to ensure we included the appropriate topics in this sector development planning. As part of the scoping process late last year, City staff and the consultants held an intensive two-day series of focus groups, interviews, and a public meeting with key stakeholders, technical experts, and members of the community.

If you want specifics of how the planning process will unfold, here's the scope of services that lays it out in some detail.

We expect the first opportunities for broad public input will occur in approximately two months when Torti Gallas will lead a week-long charrette, featuring a store-front studio downtown where people can come and go to provide input. The consultants are also scheduled for a site visit approximately one month after the contract is awarded, and we expect they will conduct some one-on-one interviews at that time.

We anticipate the planning effort to last nine to 12 months.

We'll provide regular updates as the plan progresses, including a timeline, and look forward to everyone's input on this exciting project.

Will Hampton is the project manager for the Downtown Redevelopment and Expansion Master Plan. If you have questions, contact him directly at 218-5409 or whampton@round-rock.tx.us.

Sweet 16

2008-03-26T16:21:00Z

It’s been almost a couple of months since our last Downtown Master Plan update. We’ll cover two topics today. First, the long-range plan development. Second, we’ll review some short-term improvements the City is considering for downtown.

Here’s the latest on the master plan process.

The City received 16 responses to our Request for Qualifications on the downtown plan. They range from large, national, multi-disciplined firms to smaller companies that specialize in urban redevelopment and planning. We were really excited to have so many quality submissions. Here’s the list (PDF) of responders.

We received responses from firms as far away as Toronto and Los Angeles. Some are Texas-based or have offices in the state. All but one met our minimum qualifications, so we’ve got our work cut out for us in reviewing the 15 contenders.

Our plan is to score the 15 on a range of criteria, such as experience, qualifications of staff, approach to providing services, technical competence, references, etc. We’ll then ask the 3-4 responders with the highest scores to come to Round Rock for interviews. We’ll refine the scores based on the interviews, and begin negotiations with the responder with the highest score.

Our goal is to have a contract ready for City Council approval in May. We expect to complete the planning process in approximately 12 months.

But we’re not going to wait until the plan is complete to make some short-term improvements to the historic downtown area.

As part of the City’s purchase of the office building next to City Hall, we are preparing to make improvements to the parking garage. Specifically, we’re considering improving the lighting inside the garage, painting the interior walls a bright color, and adding some tile to the pedestrian entrance at the northeast stairwell.
In the mid-term, we are considering shading the top floor of the parking garage, to make it more appealing to park there – especially in the summer. We are also considering improvements to the southwest stairwell to make it more appealing – adding lights and maybe windows.

The Parks and Recreation Department recently added a new street lamp on Lampasas to help illuminate the sidewalk near Bella Notte. PARD is also having six “up lights” installed next to the sidewalk under the crepe myrtles along the east side of Lampasas, south of Main Street. (Up lights, as the name implies, are installed on the ground and point up to illuminate the space nearby.) This should help nighttime patrons of restaurants downtown feel safer walking to the parking garage. Those lights should be operational by Friday, March 28. (We’re getting a quote to see what it would cost to do the same thing on the west side of Lampasas.)

The Christmas lights have been reinstalled on the trees in the center islands along Main Street. We will also put up Christmas lights along Lampasas. All these improvements should improve the visibility in the downtown area – with the Christmas lights perhaps adding a festive feel.

What do you think? Are there any other short-term improvements downtown you would like the City to consider?

Get Ready

2008-02-08T20:29:00Z

The Downtown Master Plan Scoping Report is now available to download (PDF) from the City of Round Rock web site. The report includes input received in November during a series of interviews with City Councilmembers, downtown business and property owners, and City staff, as well as at a public meeting at the Baca Center. The report lays out the scope of work necessary to achieve our vision for downtown Round Rock.

Based on the input received during the scoping process, City staff drafted a vision statement for downtown Round Rock:

Our vision for downtown is a thriving town center, beyond the two-block historic area, that features a viable mix of residential, commercial, retail, dining, entertainment and public space uses in a walkable environment that enhances Round Rock’s economy, quality of life, and sense of place.

The document was reviewed at the Thursday, Feb. 7, City Council work session/retreat at the United Heritage Conference Center. The City Council gave the go-ahead to start the formal planning process.

Here’s the schedule:
• Feb. 14 – Issue and advertise a Request for Qualifications to planning firms nationwide (the Scoping Report is included in the RFQ)
• March 12 – Deadline for responses
• March 13-April 11 – City staff to review submissions, select firm, negotiate contract
• May 8 – City Council to award contract

We anticipate it will take approximately 12 months to complete the Downtown Master Plan.

Thanks for your interest in this exciting project. Your comments on the document and process are always welcome.

Walk hard

2007-12-27T19:50:00Z

It occurred to me this week I left a couple of important items out of the first post.

First, I neglected to provide a link to the report (pdf) by Walkable Communities guru Dan Burden that really put downtown in focus for the City. Dan spent a couple of days in Round Rock in July 2007, and conducted a walking audit of downtown. We brought Dan here to help us with the problem pedestrians have downtown, particularly crossing Mays Street. Dan really opened our eyes to the opportunity we have in Round Rock to create a livable, workable, walkable town center. His report is worth reading (be warned: It's a huge file so be patient while it downloads. Dan's a former National Geographic photographer, so his report is full of fantastic shots.)

(While on the topic of walkability, I'll pass along a link forwarded to me by fellow City staffer David Bartels to a 2004 article from the Washington Post on walkable communities and physical health.)

Second, of all the groups, individuals, organizations, businesses, staff, etc., I listed who attended the Nov. 28 meeting, I somehow forgot to mention representatives from the Round Rock Chamber of Commerce. Charlie Ayres, as usual, was particularly helpful in connecting us with downtown business owners.

Downtown -- everything's waiting for you

2007-12-20T22:05:00Z

What a fantastic turnout we had Nov. 28 for our kickoff public meeting on the downtown redevelopment project. More than 135 folks turned out, representing a wide variety of interests -- which is fantastic! We had downtown residents, residents from other neighborhoods, business owners, commercial property owners, First Baptist Church representatives, restaurant owners, bankers, a Williamson County official, real estate professionals, hoteliers, development and engineering firm reps, local historians, local media, a couple of folks from Austin Community College, and even the Boy Scouts! Lots of City officials attended as well, including City Council members, Planning and Zoning Commission members, Historic Preservation Commission members, and staff from the administration, engineering and development services, fire, library, planning, and parks and recreation departments.

Like I said at the meeting, the City Council has made downtown redevelopment a strategic priority for the City. That decision occurred at the Council's annual August planning retreat. This summary report (pdf) from the retreat provides some terrific background information on how the City Council came to focus on downtown. (Note: the report is a low-resolution version to save time downloading; it's still a 2MB file.)

We'll post the final report we receive from our consultants from Glatting Jackson when we get it. We have received summary documents of the input given at the meeting. I've combined them into one file here (pdf). This document contains the simple tallies of the input received on Values, Issues, Best of Downtown and Worst of Downtown.

Feel free to share your thoughts on the Nov. 28 meeting here. You'll need to register to comment, and comply with our Terms of Use. We'll likely continue to use this blog throughout the downtown planning process because it's such a convenient way to keep folks in the loop and get their input.

Shameless plug: For those who haven't seen it, we did a story on downtown planning and the meeting for our December issue of City Focus. We interviewed some of the meeting attendees for the segment. Here's a link to the web cast (Windows Media Player required) for those who don't have cable television.