Title
Downtown Strategic Plan Project Update (B)
Explanation
The Strategic Plan for Downtown is a Top Priority project for the City Commission City Strategic Plan: 2020-2025-2035. A contract with a consulting group, led by MKSK, in partnership with Development Strategies and EDA, was executed in 11/2020 and co-funded by the GCRA and UF. The Office of Capital Asset Planning & Economic Resilience (CAPER) is the project lead.
On April 8, the GPC approved the project’s Engagement Brief. Per the Brief, a Neighbor Advisory Group was established and met in June. This group, composed of up to 15 members including the selected GCRA Advisory Board representative, member Jacob Ihde, is a representative voice of the Gainesville community that will directly guide the process. In July, the project team hosted 12 hourlong sessions, focusing on 10 different topics, with more than 70 attendees, representing neighborhoods, businesses, and organizations. Community roundtable events are planned for August. In addition, in the past months the project team held introductory meetings with internal stakeholders, including City staff, GCRA Advisory Board, one-one-one meetings with City Commissioners, Alachua County staff, UF staff, as well as site visits, and information gathering. Following the August engagement events, the project team will share what we’ve heard through an Engagement Summary, which will be publicly available on our project website. An online survey
and an opportunity to sign up for email updates are available on the website as well. https://cityofgainesville.org/downtownstrategicplan.
Per the GCRA Advisory Board's request to be considered a project stakeholder, in today’s presentation, the project team will share the information that was delivered at the July engagement sessions, and will open the discussion for GCRA Advisory Board members to share pers...
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