Duluth's "face to the world" due for a makeover"

The downtown is the natural focus as it represents the heart of the community. It belongs to everyone.

A great conversation is going to take place this summer in Duluth. It will be between the people who know and love this city, people who care about its past, present and future, and by people who are not content to sit on the sidelines and wait for others to act for the good of the community. It will be a conversation between you, your fellow residents, and a special group of guests with expertise in the art and science of place-making and community-building. And it will be a conversation that could shape the future of downtown Duluth for decades to come.

The conversation will take the form of a "charrette," a combination of an urban design studio and a town meeting carried out through an intensive process over several days. The downtown is the natural focus as it represents the heart of the community. It belongs to everyone, and it is the place that people from outside the community first encounter. The downtown is Duluth's public face to the world.

Duluth is transitioning from a largely industrial economy to a more diversified economic base. Part of the challenge when communities go through such dramatic changes is to develop design, policy and management approaches that preserve what residents love most about their city while enabling new development to sensitively blend in and enhance the community's character.

Duluth's special character and sense of place will only increase in importance as the city's primary assets as it works to attract entrepreneurial people who are looking for livable communities in which to live, work, raise families and base their businesses.

Working to preserve and enhance that special character will be some 30 individuals with expertise in architecture, urban design, economic development, planning, real estate development, law, community development, the arts, and other community-building professions. They will be led by one of the leading thinkers and practitioners of livable community design, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture, co-founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism and the town planning firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk and Co. And thanks to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the team will come to Minnesota at no expense to the city.

A charrette is not your typical public hearing or planning process. Conventional planning often involves technical studies and multiple meetings that take place over months and years. They produce critical studies that are needed for city planning but read like the fine print on a credit-card agreement to the average citizen. (I say that as a proud planner who has spun his share of planning jargon.)

It's almost impossible for the layperson to visualize what R-2 and C-3 zones, overlay districts, and standards for parks and public works will produce on the ground. Confronting these on a project-by-project basis through zoning appeals and public hearings is an arduous process that typically begins with a developer's design rather than one based on a community-informed vision of what a complete street, block, neighborhood and community should be.

To create that community-informed vision and plan, the charrette team reviews prior studies and solicits ideas from the community on key issues through a series of public meetings. This information is synthesized into the evolving plan that is presented in a transparent, visual language that the public can understand -- illustrated plans, three-dimensional drawings, and alternative scenarios can be reviewed and revised in a rapid feedback loop.

It is not a silver bullet and it does not transform a community overnight, but it establishes a shared vision that can be worked toward incrementally as each building and lot is rehabilitated or redeveloped; as streets are reconfigured to calm traffic and create pleasant streets for walking, civic life and commerce; and as parks and public spaces are woven anew into the fabric of the city making great places for socializing and celebrating. The goal is to create a plan and recommendations that are practical and OK to achieve consensus.

"Success," as Bobby Unser said, "is where preparation and opportunity meet." In the months ahead there will be many people in the community working hard to prepare for the charrette. While we will bring the team, they will need your help to keep finding places to meet, pulling together key information and equipment, planning how to feed this small army (which, as we know, marches on its stomach), and getting the word out to everyone to participate. Please do what you can to help and, most important, come out and take part in this great conversation about the future of Duluth.