HomeProgress-Index, 01/30/2007
Petersburg’s R/UDAT plan needs to be an active document
The Petersburg Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team is ready to roll this spring.
The recently announced team leader, Jane Jenkins of Boulder, Colo., and six other team members will visit Petersburg on March 29. The team will be here for an intensive four-day process of designing a strategic plan for the community. Jenkins is currently the executive director of Downtown Boulder Inc. and has also served with the Boulder Improvement District in Boulder, Colo.
A key component of the R/UDAT process is to bring in a team of outside professionals to conduct a planning study based on citizen ideas. And they should have plenty of ideas to review - the Petersburg R/UDAT has been busy brainstorming and seeking input from all those interested in downtown Petersburg.
Team members, all of whom are national experts, are also all volunteers from outside of Virginia so that they can formulate the strategic plan without bias, according to Ann Livingston, director of the American Institute of Architects Center for Communities by Design/
“They have no economic ties or political ties to the region,” Livingston said last year. “They really come in with a fresh perspective.”
The R/UDAT process, developed by the American Institute of Architects, has been instrumental in revitalizing more than 100 American cities and towns since the 1960s.
Steve Perez, chairman of the R/UDAT public relations committee, said last year that the strategic plan will differ from other plans. “These will be plans that are influenced by the citizens and it seems that is a rarity and that most of the time such development plans are developed by those in the government,” Perez said last year.
The report is expected to be presented in a public format on the final day of the team’s visit.
The team’s arrival in Petersburg in March is the culmination of countless hours of work by members of the Petersburg R/UDAT, which came from the Downtown Harbor Initiative, a program of Downtown Petersburg Inc.,
“We now have a team and we know when they’re coming so it’s a very exciting time for us,” said Dulaney Ward, Downtown Harbor Initiative co-chairman.
Ward recognized the hard work so far in the R/UDAT process, but acknowledged the really hard work has yet to start.
We agree. While we are also excited about a strategic plan for Petersburg’s downtown, a plan is only valuable if it is a working document.
In other words, a plan is worthless if it just collects dust on a shelf. Once the R/UDAT plan is complete, the hard questions will begin. Who - or what group - will take the lead in making the plans come true? And how, or where, will the money or investment come from? How much will government be involved in the effort? Will it mostly be private investment that takes the lead in revitalizing downtown?
All are valid questions that need to be asked once the strategic plan is unveiled this spring.
