HomeProgress-Index, 04/01/2007
R/UDAT readies study results for Monday
By Julie Buchanan, Staff Writer
PETERSBURG — The hands were flying up fast yesterday from residents who wanted to contribute their ideas to the future of downtown.
More than 100 people gathered at the Petersburg Regional Art Center for a public forum on the Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team study for downtown and the inner harbor. The forum was an opportunity for citizens to address the eight-member team of out-of-town architects and planners who are putting the design together this weekend.
Their results will be publicly unveiled Monday night at PRAC.
“We are pretty much done with gathering public input,” R/UDAT team leader Jane Jenkins said at the end of the three-hour session. “We have all the bulk of our work to do now and finish by 7 a.m. Monday to get everything off to the printer.”
The R/UDAT is a unique planning project developed by the American Institute of Architects in the 1960s and used to revamp more than 200 cities and towns across the country. It utilizes an outside team of all-volunteer experts to craft a redesign plan based on public input.
The program is unique because it allows citizens to have a say in the future of their communities. For the past year, members of the Downtown Harbor Initiative — the local sponsor of the program — and a R/UDAT steering committee have held monthly meetings to collect feedback on what citizens want to see in their downtown.
Yesterday’s public forum was a final step in that process with citizens suggesting everything from bike trails and amphitheaters to marketing strategies to the types of new businesses they’d like in the area. Bakeries and grocery stores topped the list.
Perita Pradia, a bed-and-breakfast owner on High Street, told the team she worried about Petersburg’s many unkept properties and how to get their owners on board with a revitalized downtown.
“Everybody has to buy into this concept of what this team is going to do for the city,” she said.
Jon Shaw, who lives in the Centre Hill district, hopes to see more public parks downtown. Green spaces, he said, would help attract young people and families to the area.
“It would allow people to get some food from somewhere downtown and take it to the park and just hang out,” he said. “Eventually, they’ll want to move here.”
Robert R. Hill, a Petersburg native and Chester resident, wants to see the rich history of his hometown celebrated in a public way. He suggested a Petersburg Hall of Fame.
Something needs to be done, he explained, to reverse Petersburg’s negative image in the eyes of some outsiders, particularly those in neighboring localities.
“Whatever we do from here on, I hope everyone understands there’s a generation of people that has no zero confidence in us,” he said. “How are we going to get people to come to our city?”
The cost for the R/UDAT project is around $55,000 and includes transportation costs for team members, room and board and work materials. Much of the funding came from Downtown Petersburg Inc., the managing organization for the Downtown Harbor Initiative.
The unveiling of the R/UDAT plan is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at PRAC. The public is also invited to a reception there at 5:30 p.m.
