I wish you'd gotten this up with more notice-- it sounds like a good event. Did you attend or have a report from someone who did?

Scott:

I didn't find out about it myself until Tuesday in the P.M.

Here's notes from the meeting from Mindhub, a Randy Nelson post. (Kudos to Randy for the fine job).

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Message: 16
Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 17:20:55 -0700
From: "Randy Nelson"
Subject: [MindHub] COM: Notes of General Plan 2025 Outreach,
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
To:
Message-ID:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

General Plan 2025 Outreach - Creating a Better Fresno Together

Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM, Full Circle Brewery, 620 F
Street (at Ventura), Downtown Fresno.

Notes (not minutes)

Attendance: 70+

Sponsored by: Councilmember Henry Perea, Mindhub, Creative Fresno, Fresno's
Leading Young Professionals.

Presentation provided by Planning and Development Staff:

Arnoldo Rodriguez, Supervising Planner - 621-8633

Sophia Pagoulatos, Supervising Planner - 621-8062

Will Tackett, Planner III - 621-8063

Dawn Marple, Planner III - 621- 8058

Danielle Thiesen, Planner I - 621-8042

McKencie Contreras, Planner I - 621-8066

Rick Duncan, Planner I - 621-8073

Karana H-Drayton, Project Manager (Historic Preservation) - 621-8520

Stephen Sotomayor, Project Manager (Housing) - 621-8511

Trai Her, Executive Assistant -621-8003

Keith Bergthold, Assistant Director - 621-8049

Technical Advisors:

Gil Haro, Planning Manager - 621-8030

Darrell Unruh, Planning Manager - 621-8050

Kevin Fabino, Planning Manager - 621-8046

Paul Pierce, Consultant and Graphics - 264-4421

Link for Planning and Development web site for additional resources and
information:

http://www.fresno.gov/Government/DepartmentDirectory/PlanningandDevelopment/
Planning/Default.htm

I. General Plan 2025 Outreach

A. Welcome

1. Henry Perea, Councilmember

a. After attending a dinner with Mike Dukakis & other VIP's at
UCLA, I ran into some UCLA Planning students who wanted to stay in LA after
graduation. Although LA was built out, they maintained that LA was always
willing to re-invent itself. (Paraphrase).

2. Keith Bergthold, Assistant Director

a. 2025 plan adopted in 2002.

b. Metro Rural Loop addresses regional livability and hence,
enhances downtown which is the center hub of the wheel of development,
transportation, economics, open space, farmland, etc.

B. Land Use, Transportation & Downtown PowerPoint presentation &
Discussion

1. By 1945, the USA is automobile dependant

2. Downtown Fresno needs to create a distinct identity

3. Global and international best practices

4. Public/Private partnerships

5. Holistic planning

6. Discourage sprawl

7. Do not apply suburban solutions to urban downtown Fresno

8. Incentives are critical

9. Community involvement is key in other successful downtown
revitalizations

10. Organic process for revitalization

11. Table Discussion Session 1

a. Questions:

1) If you could choose one location in the downtown where
investment should be targeted, where would it be? Why?

2) What is the single most important barrier to more people
coming downtown?

3) What do you think would give downtown a competitive advantage
over other regional shopping centers, such as Fig Garden, River Park, or
Fashion Fair?

4) What do you think you can do personally to start the movement
downtown? What is preventing you from starting that?

b. Tables' responses:

1) Fulton Mall needs more attention

2) Eliminate blight

3) Mixed use

4) Chinatown mixed use

5) Perception of crime is not valid

6) Perception of nothing to do is not valid

7) This is an urban area, not suburban

8) Vacancy of Fulton Mall

9) Re-vamp three large buildings

10) Local businesses need preference

11) Uniqueness, authenticity, housing

12) Focus building by building.

13) Now, people are present downtown only during work hours.

14) Equal treatment of downtown businesses vs outside downtown
businesses.

15) Transportation

a) Mass transportation innovation is on the way.

b) $36M for New Transportation Technologies in Measure C
(one expenditure of half cent sales tax for Fresno Co. recently passed by
voters for 20 years)

c) Fresno can do for mass transportation what Detroit did
with the automobile

d) Example of Heathrow Airport (outside London) using
Personal Rapid Transit (fully automated 6 passenger vehicles traveling on an
elevated track).

C. Older Building PowerPoint presentation & Discussion

1. Urban areas are a mix of old and new buildings.

2. Not all old building (50 years+) are historic

3. Historic preservation is green.

4. Adaptive re-use

5. 1966 was demolition of Fresno County Courthouse (mistake)

6. 225 properties are currently on the Historic Register

7. Table Discussion Session 2

a. Questions:

1) Whose responsibility is it to renovate historic buildings
. just the property owners, the city? What kind of additional incentives
should we offer?

2) Regarding "blight" . What about this as a new mantra:
"Fix it up, sell it to someone who will, or the city will take it!" (When is
eminent domain ok for historic preservation?)

3) How can we get an "A" on the historic preservation report
card?

b. Tables responses:

1) Incentives are key

2) Cash in on old buildings are a problem

3) Liberty Theater 'Church' sign is blight

4) Show the property owners financial incentives and how the
building would look if applied.

5) Political pressure is to be considered

6) Need for incentives downtown

a) Level playing field with suburbs

b) Focus on smaller incentives and more properties

7) Must the city compete & kowtow to property owners?

8) Sell to agreeable preservationists.

9) Tour of Hotel Fresno for investors & public.

D. Downtown Housing PowerPoint presentation & Discussion

1. Sacramento

a. Metro Square - 45 homes

b. City of Sacramento Fast tracks projects through red tape

2. Stockton

a. Magnolia Place - 8 units

b. Henrey Condo Building

c. Grupes Southpoint

d. Regulate actions

3. Pasadena

a. Old Town

b. Metro Gold Line

c. Strategic parking

d. Downtown area needs boundaries

4. Table Discussion Session 3

a. Questions

1) What kind of housing is needed downtown?

2) Where is the housing to be located?

3) What services are needed downtown?

E. Conclusion

1. Keith Bergthold

a. City Planning needs to be out of City Hall into the community

b. The community needs a clear vision & a high profile
organization

c. In Indianapolis, 100 people meet together regularly in
dedicated,

focused, clear vision work for the betterment of their urban area.

d. Fresno needs 100 dedicated people.

2. Highlights of some organizing perspectives for the long-term
success of downtown Fresno. Some consensus organizing needs for Downtown
success:

a. Organization and Vision: A high capacity public-private
partnership with collaborative leadership and operational management savvy,
and clarity of vision, goals, business plans, and accountability.

b. Economic reality and unique assets: Realistic assessment of
Downtown economic opportunities and constraints, regional market forces and
propensities for investment, how people want to and will actually use
Downtown, key business retention and attraction strategies, with targeted,
high return public investment and infrastructure improvements aimed to
leverage unique Downtown assets.

c. Promotion and communication leverage: Focused events,
activities, communication, marketing, and advertising that highlight unique
Downtown assets and attract targeted audiences.

d. Urban design: Urban design as the art of making places for
people and a key to creating sustainable developments and thee conditions
for a flourishing economic life - would include thoughtful design guidelines
for public and private facilities, spaces, preservation and adaptive reuse
of historic and other important buildings, substantive regulatory relief,
and excellent maintenance of properties and infrastructure.

e. Implementation and feedback loops: Incremental and
persevering plan implementation with continuous formal monitoring,
feedback, and adjustment to change and challenges for long-term Downtown
success.

f. Some key question:

1) How do metropolitan area and regional land use and
transportation plans and policies, public infrastructure investments, and
current market forces contribute to the competitive advantage or
disadvantage of Downtown Fresno?

2) On what success models or examples, critical market
analyses, asset inventories, informed vision, and clear plans and policies
for the future of Downtown Fresno, have we achieved a consensus?

3) What leaders or organizations now constitute, or potentially
represent, the required and committed public-private leadership,
partnership, and organizational capacities needed to create a successful
Downtown?

4) What are our plans for organizing a broad-based and durable
constituency to support and sustain a successful Downtown?

3. Some Organizing Perspectives for the long-term success of Downtown
Fresno (Resources):

a. "Nine Secrets of Downtown Success", by Dolores P. Palma and Ron
Shaffer, 1995.

b. "Making Business Districts Work", Feehan and Feit, 2006, 436
pages, (David Feehan is President of the International Downtown
Association).

c. "Downtown Indianapolis A Possible Case Study of Success"
Indianapolis Regional Center Plan 2020 www.indydt.com/idi.html

d. "The Main Street Four-Point Approach (With Eight Principles)",
National Trust Main Street Center and California Main Street Alliance.

1) Organization

2) Economic Restructuring

3) Promotion

4) Design

5) Eight Guiding Principles

a) Comprehensive approach to revitalization.

b) Relies on quality.

c) A public-private partnership is needed to make meaningful,
long-term revitalization possible.

d) Changing attitudes.

e) Focuses on existing assets.

f) Self-help program.

g) Incremental in nature.

h) Implementation oriented.

F. Open bar before, during & after meeting - Suds soothed the soul

Randy Nelson

Thanks for the report Mike and Randy.