Meeting details Hayden plan
HAYDEN – With some of the growing pains out of the way, Hayden’s march toward a vitalized downtown is right on track, but a lot of work remains, said members of a design panel at an open house and public meeting at City Hall on Monday night.
“This town didn’t have a traditional developed core, but they had a vision for what they wanted” in a downtown, said Vicki Dugger, executive director of the Downtown Solutions Team, the group chosen by the city to create the Hayden Strategic Implementation Plan outlining a new city center. “It will create a new design pattern for downtown.”
Flanked by concept posters in the back of the room displaying City Hall Park, a Hayden Gateway at the intersection of Honeysuckle Avenue and Government Way and extended pedestrian pathways along the downtown corridor, an audience of more than 30 attended the final question-and-answer presentation by the Salem, Ore.-based team. As part of a joint project with the city of Hayden and Urban Renewal Agency, the meeting was a chance to present the Downtown Solutions Team’s 11 months of work spent collecting data, conceptualizing, planning and retooling the several-block-long strip along Government Way set to be recast with a “village” atmosphere drenched in colorful flora and lined with a “green spine” of continuous trees.
“We’re detailing what a car-oriented downtown looks like, to what a village downtown looks like,” said Richard Zita, a landscape architect with the group.
Among the proposed changes are plans that call for parking to be relocated from the streets to behind, or adjacent to downtown buildings to create a more pedestrian-friendly atmosphere; an almost $3 million project to improve the City Hall block and 5 1/2-acre park with outdoor dining, an interactive water feature and an outdoor amphitheater with seating for more than 400; and encouraging new locally owned businesses to move in, especially those offering caffeine, carbohydrates, alcohol or local art, to encourage people to get out of their cars and shop.
“I don’t have to tell you that a lot of money is leaving the community because there aren’t the goods and services that people want,” said Mary Bosch, a market researcher with the team.
As examples, the group offered similar revitalization projects it’s handled in areas such as Lake Oswego, Ore., and Walla Walla, which in 10 years was transformed from a downtown that had nearly bottomed out, to one that added 73 new businesses, only four of which came from outside the area, and more than 400 jobs.
“If they can do it, you can do it,” Dugger said.
With the streetscape project nearly complete, which added sidewalks along downtown’s central artery, she added “you guys are well on your way.”
Adjourning the meeting, Hayden Mayor Ron McIntire said “Hayden is destined to become what we have envisioned here.”
For some Hayden residents, though, the changes can’t come soon enough.
“This was something we needed for a long time,” said attendee Billie Schroepfer, a local resident since the late ‘70s and board member of the Hayden Senior Gems and Community Center, who added she’s walked the new city sidewalks several times just to take in the many changes.
After the long summer of road construction and detours, Schroepfer believes residents are beginning to see the underlying village plan. “I think that now that most of the work is over, they have a better concept. We have a lot of wonderful people and dedicated people, and I know it’s going to work.”