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Downtown Denver
Peer Cities Analysis
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Learning from
Denver's Peers. An
important aspect of the Downtown Denver Partnership's work is to
understand the conditions, opportunities and constraints, past successes
and failures, and current plans and policies of the downtowns of
Denver’s peer cities, and to use that knowledge to help inform their
planning and policy development decisions for Denver. Your
DenverInfill webmaster, who annually teaches Planning Methods I, a
first-year Masters course in Urban Planning at the University of
Colorado at Denver, designed the Fall 2006 semester class project to
assist the Partnership with that effort.
The Downtown Denver Partnership
identified 16 cities as representative peer cities to Denver, having
either comparable population and socio-economic attributes or similar
historical growth and development characteristics as Downtown Denver.
Each student team was given the task of gathering a variety of
qualitative and quantitative data on their assigned city's downtown,
evaluating the data from an urban planning perspective, comparing and
contrasting their downtown to Downtown Denver, and providing
recommendations or "lessons learned" from their research to the
Partnership for helping improve Downtown Denver. The specific areas of
analysis, data requirements, and questions to be answered assigned to
the students for this project were as follows:
1. Downtown Definition and
Characteristics. Location: Provide a map/aerial photo
showing the general location of your downtown within its greater region
or metropolitan area, along with a narrative description of your
downtown’s geographic location as it relates to the rest of the city,
the suburban communities, and the region as a whole. Discuss, from an
urban planning perspective, how your downtown’s relative geographic
location has impacted the role of the downtown within the community,
including how the downtown has influenced the region’s growth and
development and, conversely, how the region has influenced the
downtown’s growth and development. Boundaries: Provide a
map/aerial photo that clearly delineates your downtown’s boundaries, as
officially defined by the city or the downtown planning organization (DPO),
along with a brief narrative description of your downtown’s boundaries
and the urban elements that define them (e.g. highways, streets, bodies
of water, rail yards, etc.). Discuss the criteria or process that the
city or the DPO used in defining the official boundaries of downtown
(e.g. population density, major edges and barriers, density of
development, distance radius, etc.) and/or the rationale for the
downtown’s current boundaries. What is the total land area (in acres) of
your downtown? Characteristics: Provide a map/aerial photo
of your downtown that clearly delineates its internal subareas or
districts (as defined by the city or the DPO) and identifies major
activity centers and landmarks (e.g. convention centers, stadiums, civic
plazas, transit hubs, museums, etc.). Provide a brief narrative
description of each subarea/district in terms of its general role or
influence within downtown, and the typical scale, density, and
architectural or design character found there. Identify one particular
subarea/district within your downtown that, according to the city or the DPO, faces the most challenges in terms of the quality of its built
environment and/or its economic/social stability. Describe what those
challenges are and provide a summary of the city’s or DPO’s plans or
strategies to overcome those challenges. Zoning: Provide a
map that clearly delineates the different zone districts found within
your downtown. Provide a brief narrative that captures the essence of
each of the different zone district’s general land use, building height,
and density provisions. Provide a brief narrative description of any
overlay districts found within the downtown, their purpose, and the
general regulatory means by which they attempt to accomplish their
goals.
2. Population. Provide a
profile of the resident population for downtown for this decade,
consisting of three parts: the 2000 Census population and, as estimated
by the city or the DPO, a mid-decade (2005/2006) population estimate, and
2010 population projection. Discuss the different factors (physical,
socioeconomic, policy, etc.) that might have contributed or are
expected to contribute to the residential population changes for your
downtown this decade. Discuss any changes that have occurred or are
expected to occur this decade in other downtown populations such as
employees, tourists, and students, and the impact of these changes on
your downtown.
3. Development. Provide the
average annual vacancy rates and rental square footage rates for retail
space, residential space, and commercial office space over the past 10
years. Discuss the different factors (physical, socioeconomic, policy)
that might have contributed to these trends or changes. Discuss if there
have been major shifts in the type of developments found downtown in the
past 10 years. If so, what have been the causes? If not, why has the
status quo been maintained? Discuss which zoning/land use and
development regulations have had the most impact in
encouraging or discouraging quality redevelopment in your downtown?
4. Retail. Discuss the retail
trends in your downtown over the past 10 years and those factors to
which you might attribute these successes or failures. Is there any type
of entity that manages your downtown retail properties? If so, provide
an overview of the entity and its primary powers and functions.
5. Parking. Discuss how the
public parking facilities in your downtown are managed, who manages
them, and how the revenues are generally allocated. Discuss what
municipal or DPO policies encourage or discourage surface parking lots
in your downtown. Are there any types of regulations in your downtown
that affect the upkeep, size, pricing, etc. of private surface parking
lots? If so, provide an overview of those regulations and the primary
means through which they enforce or regulate these lots.
6. Policies and Politics.
Discuss some of the political and/or policy changes that have affected
the development of your downtown in the past 10 years (e.g. eminent
domain, minimum wage politics/policies, lack of affordable housing,
etc.).
7. Compare/Contrast to Downtown
Denver. Taking into consideration the information about your
downtown within the six major topics above, compare and contrast your
downtown with Downtown Denver. How are the downtowns similar? How are
they different? Are there challenges faced by Downtown Denver that are
being/have been successfully overcome in your downtown? What did you
learn from your downtown that could have applications to Downtown
Denver? From what you’ve learned about your downtown, what specific
policy recommendations would you make to the Downtown Denver Partnership
and/or the City and County of Denver to make Downtown Denver more
successful?
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