Make It Meadville, an organized effort to bring redevelopment talks to fruition, released a report by Urban Development Advisors (UDA) about Meadville’s current state and future.
UDA is a firm hired to assist community leaders and stakeholders in developing a strategic plan and establishing a community redevelopment corporation (CRC).
The funding for this consultation comes from a $155,000 grant from the Richard Mellon King Foundation’s Western Pennsylvania Economic Development program. The grant was awarded to Allegheny College in collaboration with the city of Meadville to support planning and capacity-building efforts to aid in downtown revitalization and development.
The report expressed support for a CRC and proposed a geographic area of focus for the corporation to address first. Among their recommendations, UDA addressed the possible mission and goals of the CRC, what key projects to prioritize, the composition of a board of directors, and corporation staffing needs.
The proposed geographic focus is an approximate seven-by-seven block area bounded by North Street, Pine Street, the Downtown Mall and Diamond Park, which primarily constitute the central business district.
This area includes restaurants, boutiques, Tattered Corners bookstore, games of skill parlors, banks, furniture stores, the Market House and more.
Advisers commented in the report that Meadville’s grid street structure makes it conducive to walkability, and its historic district’s distinct architecture and varied local shops give it “a great foundation upon which to attract new businesses, permanent residents and visitors.”
The UDA team that visited Meadville included experts Tom Eitler and Tom Murphy, who have extensive backgrounds in redevelopment efforts. UDA compiled the report after holding 60 interviews and a public meeting, communicating with a steering committee, hosting a survey and reflecting on their professional experiences.
UDA expressed a need for a CRC as it said many other efforts focus on wider geographic areas while having limited staffing capacity, constraining productivity.
“It is in UDA’s opinion that no single organization wakes up every day thinking about the management, promotion and redevelopment of the core city,” the report reads.
Advisers, along with Andy Walker, the college’s executive director of economic, civic and community engagement, initially thought the CRC’s focus would be real estate but decided a more comprehensive plan would be most impactful.
“UDA’s initial thought was that this effort would be focused on real estate intervention. It became clear after the interviews, meetings and surveys that a more robust organization was needed that could focus on not only real estate but also business recruitment, marketing, placemaking and event coordination in the context of a broader strategic strategy,” the UDA writes.
The three key areas UDA suggested are real estate public-private partnerships; placemaking; and communications, marketing, events and business recruitment.
Under real estate, UDA proposed short- and long-term commercial and residential rehabilitation, a strategy to create upper-floor residential units in the city’s core, a new residential district and a boutique hotel.
The city categorizes traditional neighborhood development as conditional use under the zoning ordinance approved in February. Conditional use means the property use and plans must be approved first, so the mixed-use development should be feasible.
Placemaking efforts would include streetscape improvements and a connectivity strategy connecting the French Creek trail network to downtown. It also suggests gateway treatment as an “early win” so the community can see some things come to fruition soon.
Urban gateways mark transitions into different spaces and provide a meaningful checkpoint for visitors to recognize. Currently, there are gateways at Park Avenue and Pine Street in the south, Park Avenue and North Street in the north and the French Creek Parkway at Arch Street in the west, all of which do not have landscaping or signage to denote an entrance to downtown.
The UDA also advises signage and wayfinding components for easy navigation to restaurants and shops, public parking, Market House, Diamond Park and other featured areas.
“Success breeds success, so I think some people will only come off the sidelines when they see something and think, ‘Oh, yes, I want to be involved in this project,’ or ‘Yes, I am passionate about this.’ So I think we have to work on those early wins first to get some street cred, frankly,” Walker said.
For communications strategies, UDA recommended creating a cohesive brand encompassing Meadville to market regionally.
“A robust marketing effort should be one of the important early efforts and concentrations of the CRC,” the report reads.
UDA also advised a business retention and recruitment strategy, in addition to an events strategy — think community calendar that is a one-stop-shop for all things Meadville.
Walker said there’s no need to reinvent the wheel with these initiatives, either. He said it could be as simple as coordinating with Visit Crawford to highlight Meadville events on its community calendar.
Especially as the live music scene continues to boom in the area, Walker said it is advantageous to have all the events in one place.
UDA recommended an 11-member board of directors comprised of the following: three business owner representatives, three property owner representatives, one cultural/historical/recreational resource representative, one performing arts representative, one real estate developed representative, one community representative, one anchor institution representative and one city official or an ex officio in a non-voting capacity.
Key performance indicators will guide decision-making efforts and measure the CRC’s success. Some of those metrics are event participation, market rates, and property condition surveys, which document occupancy and facade improvements.
Like all sustainable and impactful efforts, Walker said it will take time. The report is a starting point, and the steering committee for the CRC initiative now moves on to outreach for board nominations. Walker said he hopes to have the board chosen and committed to the job’s scope by the end of June.
After that, the CRC has a long path of incorporation filings and leadership hiring before all systems are go.
To receive updates on developments or to read the full report, visit makeitmeadville.org.
