December 3rd, 2009
J.B. Smith
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Take 350 Waco residents from various backgrounds, give them markers and maps of “Greater Downtown” and let them debate and dream for three hours, and here’s what you get:
A city core redeveloped with more than 18,000 new residents, a grocery store, restaurants, bars, hotels, shops and a farmers market. Arts and cultural attractions, parks and riverfront vistas. Pedestrian routes, bike lanes and maybe streetcar lines to tie it all together.
And that vision embraces both sides of the river equally, said a consultant for the community’s yearlong “Imagine Waco” planning process.
Consultant John Fregonese of Portland, Ore., on Wednesday showed the Imagine Waco steering committee a digital compilation of 44 maps that were created by groups at public planning workshops in October. Participants at those workshops were asked to envision future uses for the central city land bounded by Baylor University, Cameron Park, Paul Quinn College and 18th Street.
Fregonese said he was struck by how many groups saw East Waco, especially the Elm Street corridor, as a candidate for dense urban development.
"The east side of Waco received a lot of attention,” he said. “One thing we noticed was how much people saw Waco straddling the river.”
Fregonese said he, too, sees great potential in the historic but blighted Elm Street area.
“Seeing Elm is like finding a Chippendale dresser in your grandmother’s attic,” he said. “You just don’t find this everywhere.”
Fregonese’s composite map showed an east-west “axis” of redevelopment following Austin and Franklin Avenues and extending across the river to Elm. A second north-south axis from Baylor to downtown could cross over that corridor, he said.
The steering committee Thursday discussed practical ways to make that vision happen, with help from experts whom Fregonese brought in on transit and retail development.
They considered the market forces that it would take to get new retail stores or hotels. A member of Fregonese’s team said a new 200-room hotel would require a 10 percent increase in Waco room-night demand. A large grocery store and retail complex would require an additional 10,000 to 15,000 residents in a radius of two or three miles.
City Manager Larry Groth asked whether a smaller grocery store might be possible with another 5,000 or so residents.
Fregonese said an “urban” grocery store, such as the Trader Joe’s chain on the West Coast, might be possible at that level.
The group discussed mass transit at length, envisioning street rail or rapid-transit bus routes along the two axes that Fregonese identified. A consultant said a modern streetcar line could cost between $8 million and $15 million a mile. He suggested a four-mile section between downtown and Baylor as a likely first phase, followed by an east-west link that would cross the river.
Fregonese said that based on the experience of Portland and other cities with new streetcar systems, those systems can jump-start hundreds of millions of dollars of development along their routes.
Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce President Jim Vaughan said public transit is essential to an urban center — and so is persuading people to ride it.
“I think transit is so important, but the problem is that none of us ride it,” he said. “It’s so easy to take your car.”
Fregonese said that if it’s done right, a streetcar feels more like a horizontal elevator and less like taking public transit.
Groth agreed that a streetcar system could be a successful tool for developing downtown, but he said the city should start with routes that have built-in demand.
“If you try to be all things to all people, you’ll fail,” he said.
Fregonese said the central city has all the right elements for redevelopment.
“It’s 70 to 80 percent there,” he said. “You’ve got the river, the bridges, the town that comes right up to the river,” he said. “It’s just a matter of tying it all together.”