I'm also a bit hesitant to jump into this
discussion thread. The planning
professionals are doing a great job.
Here are some observations and questions for
the professionals and others with experience (or opinions) in any kind of
planning projects.
1. Looking Forward vs. Looking
Backward: What percent of planning is future focused and what percent uses
the rear view mirror for planning purposes?
Said another way, do planning projects like
the City's new Comp Plan process look at future trends
and changes or do they reflect the way cities are now or have been
done in the past? Will Winona 20-30 years from now look
like grandma's Winona?
This is NOT a criticism in any way. It's
meant as an honest and innocent question. I know that much of the County
and other planning that I have seen seems to make a latent assumption that
things don't change.
2. Two Specific Examples: Do city
planning processes, in Winona or anywhere, try to take into account these
two future changes?
A. Ageing Demographic Shifts: The
population will look very different in the next 20-30 years. Never before
in history will this country (and the world) have so many senior citizens
to accommodate. Where will they live? How will they get
around? Will the standard suburb be an ideal model for them? Any
examples of plans for this? It seems like the University Village in Knopp
Valley may be a possible example. To these new housing arrangements take
into account transportation needs?
B. Peak Oil: I know oil will not run
out in the next 20-30 years but there is no denying big changes are coming
down the pike. Most city models are "driven" by car needs. Can that
be assumed in the future?
This reminds me a great quote I've mentioned
before. "Simply building more roads to fix traffic problems is like simply
loosening your belt to deal with your weight problem." Are we solving
traffic problems or only making them worst for our kids and grandkids? Are
postponing tough decisions now and only making them worst for our
kids?
Is the problem not enough parking
in downtown Winona and/or is it too many cars downtown?
Does Winona have the population density now or in the foreseeable
future to support some modern equivalent of street cars for all those future
senior citizens (and current WSU students)? What energy sources
would be needed to run the street cars?
;->
I don't expect anyone to answer all of those
questions but I'd love to hear someone's thoughts on any of the
questions.
Dwayne Voegeli
April 27, 2006
===========
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 2:13 PM
Subject: Re: [Winona] RE: Planning
[Winona Online Democracy]
WOD
Didn't know exactly where (or even if) to jump into
this string, so decided to piggyback on a fellow planner's last contribution
(which, thank you Phil) says a lot of significant things. A couple of
points of info from earlier postings, however:
1. Riverbend Industrial Park (the East End land
fill) was intended to be just that - an industrial park. I know that from
personal history. I was the Winona Planning Director when Riverbend was
conceived (early 1970's), and an employee of the construction firm (J.F.
Brennan) that moved 500K yards of Corps dredge spoil from Betsy Slough to
construct the park in the mid 1980's. If there is now a concern for a lack of
industrial sites today, I second the notion that Wal-Mart et al decisions have
messed up the original game plan and maybe the Winona CBD as well.
2. Paul suggests an ethanol plant for Winona as a
possibility. With Winona's superior transportation assets (rail + waterway) that
should be a slam dunk project. While ethanol produced by Minnesota plants to
date has been mostly consumed in Minnesota, that is already changing. The
MBTE replacement by ethanol took a slight hiccup today, but it will come back.
The key to the future success of (exported) Minnesota ethanol (and biodiesel as
well) is transportation. These are not pipeline products. Now, if we only
had a downwind ethanol plant location remaining in Riverbend I know of two
farmer groups a stones throw up 14 that are working on ethanol plant projects
right now - with no specific sites in mind that I know of...
Chuck Dillerud
Champlin
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 11:00
AM
Subject: [Winona] RE: Planning
[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
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