City leaders to hear update from Main Street Urban Design Project team

For one Auburn resident, it was large street trees. Another liked seating along the street, and still another thought temporary planters, parklets and art would be boffo.

By Robert Whale • February 5, 2016 5:24 pm
Residents and business owners study one of two perspectives for the downtown commercial corridor during an open house in the City Hall lobby last October. The City’s Main Street Urban Design Project team used the open house to receive feedback and ideas from the public on its proposed ideas to enhance downtown.
Residents and business owners study one of two perspectives for the downtown commercial corridor during an open house in the City Hall lobby last October. The City’s Main Street Urban Design Project team used the open house to receive feedback and ideas from the public on its proposed ideas to enhance downtown.

For one Auburn resident, it was large street trees. Another liked seating along the street, and still another thought temporary planters, parklets and art would be boffo.

Auburn’s leaders will hear what hometown folks had to tell the City’s three-member Main Street Urban Design Project team when it interviewed them about the future look of the downtown at 5:30 p.m. Monday, at Auburn City Hall, 25 W. Main St.

City Councilmembers will no doubt hear as well what the team has learned in meetings, what its research has revealed and a key insight or three on its design ideas.

Between the lines of their large strategies and actions for providing access to all, strengthening downtown’s spaces, promoting downtown as a neighborhood, and encouraging economic development, they should have a great deal to talk about.

For instance, “building infrastructure for all ages and abilities,” “prioritizing the walking experience,” “encouraging development of empty lots,” and managing, programming and activating public spaces to “draw Auburn’s residents downtown.”

Also, how the City can make its inventory of new and existing building stock more amenable to a public streetscape and a public life.

Residents were asked what they thought should happen to the downtown in the short and long term, whether there might be room for a continuous canopy of trees, for clustering similar land uses, or for embellishing some storefronts with decorative canopies to jazz up the streetscapes.

Team leaders recently said the city’s proximity to Interstate 5, State Route 167 and Highway nets it, “300,000 400,000 eyeballs going right by downtown Auburn every single day.” Among other positives mentioned were the Sounder Commuter Train, the history that Auburn, unlike other cities hasn’t swept away, and legacy business like Nelson’s Jewelry and public sector improvements the City has invested in over the last 10 years.