Downtown Plan Update

Downtown Plan Adoption

On December 14, 2020 the Creswell City Council adopted Ordinance 542, adopting the Downtown Plan, amending the Creswell Comprehensive Land Use Plan as a refinement of the Downtown Commercial (DC) zone. The objectives for the Downtown Plan include:

  • Investment and Beautification

  • Utilization of the Right-of-Way

  • Mix of Uses

  • High-Quality Design

  • Attractive Public Spaces

  • Parking

Street Design

Downtown streets are unique to those located in other areas of Creswell, in that they intend to serve a more walking-focused audience. General Commercial areas often require greater vehicular access, and therefore have pedestrian facility design requirements, but with a lower anticipated volume and/or shorter-duration walk (i.e. walking from a parking space).

Several Downtown streets are identified for modernization in the Creswell Transportation System Plan (2019) and the City just completed the reconstruction of A Street, which allowed Staff to develop a set of design guidelines for the zone and pilot them on that project.

Streets in Downtown shall provide more generous sidewalks, eliminating planter strips in favor of tree-wells and constructed planters. This provides more concrete walking surface for wider sidewalks  (8ft, typical), encouraging residents and visitors to get out of their cars and walk to businesses.
Downtown street design will include pedestrian-scale lighting and street furniture (such as benches and trash receptacles) to frame the sidewalk area. This increases pedestrian safety and can help slow car traffic down.

Two-thirds of business owners agreed that if a street was fully improved it would also help to improve their business (see Appendix B for survey summary).

Buildings and Housing

Generally, building beautification and façade improvement was ranked the top priority for achieving the community’s vision for the Downtown Commercial zone. Improvements to buildings focuses on high-quality architectural design and construction enhancements, which have been included in Creswell’s Downtown Commercial code since 2001. The Downtown Plan provides foundation for, and refinement of, these code sections, in line with the purpose of the Downtown Commercial (DC) zone, as provided in Goal 2 of the Creswell Comprehensive Land Use Plan.[1]

The Downtown Plan encourages housing options in line with needs identified in the Housing Needs Analysis (2019). These standards reflect the desire to see multi-family housing options above ground-floor commercial.

Housing policies focused on:

  • Density minimums for housing units above and at ground-floor;

  • Areas within the Downtown zone appropriate for ground-floor residential, if desired;

  • Amenities and public spaces that may complement higher-density housing such as plaza, garden, or similar amenities near entrances and courtyards that can meet common open space requirements.

Downtown housing policies took into consideration survey responses indicating townhouse and/or condominium housing would be an appropriate housing type for Downtown, as well as expression from business owners and residents that encouraging mixed-use buildings would increase Creswell’s Downtown vitality.

Wayfinding

Creswell’s Downtown depends on folks getting around to the places they want to go! Many communities use wayfinding tools to help infrequent visitors make their way around. Wayfinding also helps, along with street design and pedestrian amenities, to provide a clear definition of the Downtown district. Committee members and Council input suggested using unique branding to identify the following:

  • Street signs: Unique color or “topper” to typical street signs;

  • Integrate maps into street furniture (trash receptacles, benches);

  • Signs indicating community resources/public buildings;

  • Desire to express community values through Downtown signage and branding;

Because wayfinding is a specialized marketing tool for Downtown Districts, Staff recommends this to be a separate economic development effort, to create consistent signage and branding for the District.

Public Buildings

Downtown is the civic heart of the city, and will house many of our community’s buildings. Public buildings were added to the list of considerations for Downtown in response to preliminary discussions with South Lane Fire & Rescue to build a new fire station.

Public buildings often have specialize purpose, so current code keeps requirements to a minimum to allow for architectural freedom in this regard. However, emphasis by Commissioners and Councilors focused on public buildings providing the following:

  • A public entry, for access by general public to the building;

  • A plaza, vestibule, courtyard or similar pedestrian amenity at the entrance;

  • Active engagement with street frontages through installation of planters and similar amenities such as bench seating; and

  • Decorative fencing, where desired, to reduce “gaps” in active street sections, in order to complement businesses adjacent.

These requirements of public facilities in the Downtown Commercial zone weave into requirements of private building requirements in the district, focused on interaction with the adjacent built environment, and add to beautification of the zone.

Parking

Concern about parking availability has been expressed by Committee members, business owners, and residents alike. In contrast, however, when asked if parking is a barrier to visiting downtown, 75% of respondents to the City’s survey said no. Staff proposes to strike a compromise by retaining the incentive to develop downtown with reduced parking requirements, noting that small-scale uses typical of Downtown will continue to develop sustainably.

The Downtown Plan identifies a change to Downtown Parking requirements, as follows:

  • For buildings less than 2,500sqft: No on-site parking requirement

  • For buildings with greater than 2,500 sqft: Based on use, the area beyond 2,500sqft will have on-site parking standards applied at a discounted rate.

(Spaces fronting a development may be counted toward the minimum parking standard.)

Please see the attached Downtown Plan Update, or feel free to browse the Virtual Open House tool (which previoulsy included survey questions) to learn more.

Downtown Update Virtual Open House