I recently visited Wyoming, Mich. to make a presentation at a joint City Council / Planning Commission / Downtown Development Authority meeting. The discussion involved ideas for redeveloping a key corridor that is the city’s “downtown.”

28th Street is in many ways a typical first-ring suburban corridor, complete with a first-generation enclosed mall, a defunct movie theatre, pad sites and auto-oriented services. However, the city is interested in transforming at least a portion of the 3-mile stretch into a real “downtown” complete with a mix of commercial, residential and civic buildings. The presentation included some basic concepts, as well as a discussion concerning how to use form-based zoning codes to implement a potential redevelopment plan.

Take a look at some of our ideas:

Kevin Klinkenberg on the six transects:
T1. Natural
T2. Rural
T3. Suburban
T4. General Urban
T5. Urban Center
T6. Urban Core

Click here for the full powerpoint version.

A Tale of Two Exurbs
~By Ben Adler
Most outer-ring suburbs are being developed into unwalkable sprawl. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Click here to read the full article.

From The Gazette-Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs is embarking on two ambitious planning efforts designed to guide and shape growth in the heart of the city for years to come.

If they work – and similar efforts have breathed new life into the urban core of other cities – downtown would evolve into a more pedestrian-friendly center of activity.

Imagine high-density housing, alternative forms of public transportation and a wider mix of offerings, such as grocery stores, high-end restaurants and maybe even a ballpark, an idea that’s been tossed around before.
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Kevin Klinkenberg guest writes for OneKC Voice about maintaining and developing a healthy downtown.

Who doesn’t want a healthy downtown? After all, isn’t that like mom and apple pie?

The truth is, universally people declare that they wish their immediate downtown was vibrant and healthy, as well as other downtowns in the region. And yet we seem to struggle to achieve this in so many of our communities. Why is this? Do we not mean what we say?

Of course, the answers are complex. In some cases, we have willfully presided over the demise of the hearts of our communities, but most of the time it’s unintended consequences that have caused so much damage. We’ve created big roadways that bypass or cut off our downtowns, land use policies that make redevelopment difficult, encouraged or subsidized their competition in shopping centers with free parking, and in general not realized the appeal that these places have to so many people. But the good news is threefold:

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