[Winona Online Democracy]
Kathy and Janice make valid points about downtown development. It is not easy - if it were, every little town would thrive. Savannah GA has several things going - it can host year-round tourists because of the climate, it is on a major interstate (I-95), it's on the ocean, and it's loaded with nationally significant history and historical buildings. Winona can't brag about the climate year-round, is probably below average as far as tourist trade, is on modest Hwy 61, is on the Mississippi (great, but not the ocean), and has a smaller (but still wonderful) treasure of historical places. It means Winona has to work harder to be anything like Savannah. We have to capitalize on our strengths, but not pretend we have everything it takes to be a Savannah. We can be a gem of SE Minnesota however.Closer to home, Lake City is a few miles closer to Rochester (the Big Dog in SE MN) than Winona, and Lake City has the large expanse of Lake Pepin and no RR next to the river. If I had a big boat where would I go from Rochester? We need to do something special and different to attract people over Lake City.Janice's points about the retail vs. service businesses now in downtown is right on - services take that space because most of us do our convenience shopping at Target, Wal Mart, K Mart and the like, out at the edge of town. There is a reason these companies are so successful - most of us like to shop that way. The offices and services take over the space downtown because it is available, not because it's the best use of downtown space.Parking needs to be addressed but is actually about the same per square foot of floor area for retail vs. offices (3 to 5 spaces per 1,000 square feet). Retail spaces and doctors office spaces turn over many times during the day, whereas most other office parking spaces are occupied the whole day, but it's about the same size parking lot for a given floor area. The key to downtown parking is cost and convenience. You can park at Target or Wal Mart for free right in front of the building within sight of the entrance. Reviewing the parking situation downtown is part of the planning effort underway."Amenities" downtown for residents means convenient businesses and services, but also green space and beautiful, well-maintained public spaces - streets, sidewalks, plazas, access to the river, etc.To take one example, a restaurant downtown needs to serve a certain number of meals to stay afloat. It could serve daytime office workers, shoppers, tourists, or year-round residents. The office workers may be there, but the other three are questionable unless some real effort is made. The retail shoppers will be made up of the other three groups: workers, tourists, residents. Residents downtown will shop downtown because it is convenient, residents elsewhere in Winona will not, unless there is something special there to attract them.You can roughly estimate* the amount of retail space supported by residents by assuming 30% of household income is spent on retail goods. Assume average household income of $50,000, and that typical retail stores will sell about $250 per square foot of floor area per year. Doing the math you get about 60,000 square feet of retail space needed for every 1,000 households (about 2,000 - 2,500 people). You can fit about 20,000 to 25,000 square feet of retail space on a city block (one level with parking)**, so 1,000 new housing units downtown would support 2 to 2-1/2 blocks of retail space if they had the right businesses and services. For all of Winona County - 19,000 households - the entire retail demand would be about 1.1 million square feet, or 35-45 city blocks. All of "Downtown" as defined in the city's Comp Plan effort is 55 blocks. If the only retail space in town were downtown we couldn't fill all of "downtown" with retail services.But of course there is Westgate, KMart, Target, Wal Mart, Fleet Farm, and all the smaller businesses around them, so most of this demand is already met elsewhere, which is why a key to downtown development is new business supported by new residents and new tourists. For every 1,000 new housing units built downtown that's 2-3 blocks of demand for retail business space, and that's 1,000 housing units that won't fill the sensitive valleys of Wilson Township - if we can make downtown as attractive to new residents as an acre of bluff land.Phil Carlson, Mpls* These are rough numbers that should be verified by local research** More space could be fit per block if it is supported by pedestrian traffic - people living very close by - so that less parking space is needed_______________________________________________ This message was posted to Winona Online Democracy All messages must be signed by the senders actual name. No commercial solicitations are allowed on this list. To manage your subscription or view the message archives, please visit http://mapnp.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/winona Any problems or suggestions can be directed to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you want help on how to contact elected officials, go to the Contact page at http://www.winonaonlinedemocracy.org
