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Approve the Downtown Work Plan for FY 19 and 20.
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Staff:
Department:
Rae Buckley, Director of Organizational and Strategic Initiatives
Town Manager's Office
Sarah Poulton, Downtown Special Projects Manager
Overview: The Downtown Work Plan is a two-year list of Town projects and investments in the Downtown to turn ideas into action by the year 2020. Tonight we ask the Town Council to approve the FY 19-20 Downtown Work Plan.
Recommendation(s): That the Council approve the FY 19-20 Downtown Work Plan.
Key Issues:
* The Downtown Work Plan was approved for FY 17 and 18 by the Town Council in June, 2016. Since that time, the work plan has advanced through planning initiatives, physical experiments, infrastructure improvements, business system improvements and the addition of a new downtown festival to the annual calendar of events.
* In FY 19 and 20, the work plan will include continued physical improvements to the alleyways that connect Wallace Deck and Franklin Street, a planning focus on downtown retail and the "four corners" of Columbia and Rosemary Street, continued experimentation and design of open spaces and continued collaboration with the Department of Transportation on their planning and infrastructure projects on Franklin Street.
* The Town's Downtown Work Plan works in concert with the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership Work Plan and the University's efforts along Porthole Alley and Carolina Square.
* In FY 2020 we recommend a review of the work plan format to consider whether it is still a tool that is helpful for planning in the Downtown. At that time, the Council may want to undertake a more holistic, long-term planning process or other major economic development and infrastructure investments.
Fiscal Impact/Resources: Construction projects are funded by streetscape bond funds. Planning projects will be funded when they are initiated by the Council. And small scale prototyping and regulatory changes will be funded with FY 19 d...
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