The public will have a chance to share their visions for future downtown development in a meeting scheduled for 6-8 p.m. on Oct. 30 in the second floor community room of the Brownsville Metro La Plaza bus terminal, 755 International Blvd.
The meeting is the next step in a process of gathering information for a major revamp of the city’s development codes, and this time focuses specifically on downtown. An initial kick-off meeting on Sept. 24 was well attended, said Dawn Warrick, an urban planner with Freese and Nichols, the consulting firm hired by the city to conduct the code overhaul.
“What we’re going to do this week is really drill down on downtown,” she said.
The purpose of the Oct. 30 meeting is to gather public input on the principles that should guide downtown development going forward, Warrick said.
“It’s defining what is special and what about downtown we want to preserve, and how that translates into, particularly, private development,” she said.
Warrick said the city had asked the consultant to devise form-based codes for downtown, which focus on the physical forms of building and how they interact as opposed to focusing on specific uses for different types of buildings.
“That gives us the ability to really understand the character of the built environment,” she said.
That means understanding how buildings “meet the ground” and relate to each other, and how the spaces between buildings should developed — as public spaces for instance, Warrick said.
“We want to explore that in this conversation that we’re going to have this week, and then develop the tools that will become part of the codes for the way downtown evolves,” she said. “So much of what we’re doing right now is just gathering information and feedback and understand what people’s goals are.”
Meeting attendees will receive free parking validation for the La Plaza parking garage 1400 E. Adams St.
Warrick said the city expects another good turnout for the Oct. 30 meeting and that it’s important for resident to come and share their ideas for downtown, information Freese and Nichols will use in putting together a consensus on the way forward.
“Everybody’s got a stake in downtown, even if they don’t own property, because it’s what people envision as the heart of the community,” she said. “Oftentimes it is the economic engine of the community. We want to do it in a way that represents the community’s vision as a whole.”
Downtown Development Meeting
Oct. 30, 6-8 p.m.
Brownsville Metro La Plaza terminal, 755 International Blvd.
Free parking in La Plaza parking garage
