Downtown Voices Coalition

This past Spring, two Downtown Voices Coalition subcommittees were asked to examine the “who, what, where, when, why, and how much” of two issues that have been in the news: (1) the use of GPLETs as an economic and urban development tool and (2) the city of Phoenix’s Request for Proposal (RFP) process used to recommend a development team to tackle a development project on a particular parcel.
On Saturday, Jeff Sherman, Downtown Voices Coalition Steering Committee Member and Chair of the Community Benefits & GPLETs Subcommittee presented his committee’s findings. Next month, after review and comment, the Downtown Voices Coalition Steering Committee will formally adopt the Subcommittee’s findings and recommendations.

To this topic, the following are available for your review:

• Draft Position Paper & Recommendations December 18, 2016
• PowerPoint Presentation, October 8, 2016

If you have any questions, comments, or ideas about the Subcommittee’s position paper and set of recommendations, please contact Jeff Sherman. Your feedback is welcome.

The findings and recommendations of the Best Practices in RFPs Subcommittee, chaired by Downtown Voices Coalition Steering Committee Member Andie Abkarian, will be forthcoming in the near future.

(Photo credit: Tim Eigo)

Please join us on Saturday, October 8, starting at 9:30 a.m. at the Roosevelt Commons Clubhouse, 825 N. 6th Avenue, for the next Downtown Voices Coalition Steering Committee meeting.

WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS

ADMINISTRATION

Subcommittee Updates:
• Best Practices in RFPs (Andie Abkarian)
• REPORT PRESENTATION Community Benefits & GPLETs (Jeff Sherman)

GUEST SPEAKER

ISSUES & ADVOCACY

DEVELOPMENT ROUNDTABLE (who has updates about what?)

• Central City South/South Phoenix
• Downtown Core
• Evans Churchill
• Garfield/Eastlake Park
• Grand Avenue/Triangle/Capitol Mall
• Midtown
• Roosevelt/F.Q. Story

UPCOMING COMMUNITY/CIVIC EVENTS

• Mayor’s Arts Awards at Phoenix Center for the Arts, Oct. 13
• Noche en Blanco at Hance Park, Oct. 22
• Certified Local Fall Festival, Nov. 5
• Election Day, Nov. 8 ~ http://servicearizona.com/voterRegistration
• Roosevelt Row Pie Social, Nov. 19
• Other

NEW BUSINESS

ADJOURNMENT

Please join us on Saturday, August 13, starting at 9:30 a.m. at the Roosevelt Commons Clubhouse, 825 N. 6th Avenue, for the next Downtown Voices Coalition Steering Committee meeting.

WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS (Steve Dreiseszun)

ADMINISTRATION

Subcommittee Updates:
• Best Practices in RFPs (Andie Abkarian)
• Community Benefits & GPLETs (Jeff Sherman)

ISSUES & ADVOCACY
• FAA Flight Path Change Update
• Homelessness in Central Phoenix Govt. 101, Aug. 23 (on Facebook)
• 7th St. & Roosevelt Electronic Billboard
• Downtown Phoenix Comprehensive Transportation Study (See update below)
• Van Buren Street Improvement Public Open House, Aug. 16 (on Facebook)
• 3rd & 5tth Avenues Project Open House, Aug. 25 (on Facebook)
• Other

DEVELOPMENT ROUNDTABLE
• Adams Street Activation (Renaissance Hotel exterior)
• Phoenix Biomedical Campus planning
• Knipe House, 2nd St. & Roosevelt (City of Phoenix)
• 5th & 6th Street properties (Desert Viking)
• “The Canyon” Residential/Mixed Use Project (Hines Development)
• Stewart Motor Co./Circles building (Empire)
• Other

UPCOMING EVENTS (share your list!)
• Arizona Center for Law & Society grand opening, Aug. 15 ~http://acls2016.com/
• Phoenix Center for the Arts Open House, Aug. 20 ~ Facebook
• State of the (Congressional) District, Sept. 1 ~ Facebook
• Collaboratory on Central grand opening, Sept. 20 ~ http://bit.ly/2aL54nw
• Chile Pepper Festival, Oct. 1 ~ Facebook
• Certified Local Fall Festival moving to Hance Park, Nov. 5 ~ Facebook
• Roosevelt Row Pie Social, Nov. 19 ~ Facebook
• Other

NEW BUSINESS

ADJOURNMENT

Downtown Phoenix Comprehensive Transportation Study (August 2016 Update)

The recommendations in the Downtown Phoenix Comprehensive Transportation Study (DPCTS) were adopted by City Council in July 2014. Many of these recommendations have been placed in our Capital Improvement Program as future design and construction projects. To date there are a host of projects in various stages of development that align with Phase I and II of the DPCTS including:
• 3rd and 5th Avenue Multimodal Street Improvements (pre-design)
• Bike lanes on Washington and Jefferson between 7th Street and 7th Avenue (design plans completed and signed)
• 3rd Street Improvements from Indian School Road to Roosevelt Street (pre-design complete and concept approved)
• A new Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon and Two-Stage crosswalk was recently installed between the Children’s Museum of Phoenix and the Heritage Square area that aims for safer pedestrian movements across busy 7th Street.
• Van Buren Street Improvements from 7th Street to 40th Street (pre-design complete)
• Plans for future bicycle lanes on Roosevelt Street between 1st and 7th Avenues have been completed and strongly received by the community.
• Phase II of Grant Street improvements in the Warehouse District will begin August 2016.
• Staff has also continued coordination with the Warehouse Committee on need and future projects many of them align with the Warehouse Streetscape and Safety Study managed by TPP staff.

Planned and current development projects throughout the Downtown and adjacent areas are being coordinated closely with the development community including projects such as: Ballpark Apartments, Fry’s grocery store, Bio-Campus, multi-family housing and the Renaissance Hotel and Adams Street improvements.

Street Transportation was able to use excess Reinvent Phoenix funds through PDD to prepare a feasibility study and 15% plans for both 3rd Street and Van Buren Street improvement projects located within the Reinvent Phoenix TOD areas.

In addition, Street Transportation has worked closely with Neighborhood Services on CMAQ projects and Housing with the successful Choice Neighborhoods Grant and Global Green Initiative. Finally, since the successful three-star rating through Sustainability Tools for Assessing and Rating Communities (STAR) for the City, Street Transportation has been part of the expanded effort in the Transportation performance measures to improve our rating as well as the potential alignment with the Complete Streets performance measures and those in PlanPhx.

Outreach and Approvals

Briefings with impacted City Council offices have occurred at various phases on capital Improvement projects, road repurposing as part of the Bicycle Master Plan, MAG Design Assistance and the T2050 Program. Examples of these efforts include:
• 3rd Street (Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee approval of conceptual design)
• 3rd and 5th Avenue (Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee updates)
• Oak Street – 3rd Street to 20th Street (Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee update on MAG projects)

Our new direction is to garner Subcommittee approval on the project conceptual plan before moving forward so that City Council is aware of planned improvements.

Public outreach efforts for street improvement projects have been very successful. Staff continues to utilize the most up to date avenues for getting information out to the community through our Public Information Officer. Attendance for specific projects have exceeded 100 attendees at designated open houses where staff have also utilized innovative before and after drawings to illustrate the future improvements to the attendees. Staff has also worked with other departments to include other related items (i.e. Choice Neighborhoods Grant, LRT station planning) within the project area at the selected open houses to maximize the meeting time.

Complete Streets

Draft documents were prepared for Complete Streets including a policy, design guidelines and performance measures. In the midst of the approval process, staff was advised by the Planning Commission to gather input from the development community. In response to this, meetings between the Complete Streets Advisory Board and developer representatives have been occurring throughout the summer with focused discussion on what is asked of the area developers using a series of existing and planned development examples including: multi-family, single-family, master planned communities and commercial projects. Subsequent meetings will summarize comments from all parties and revise the draft documents.

Bicycle Master Plan

Street Transportation is working to implement the recommendations from the Bicycle Master Plan by focusing on placement of bike lanes on collector streets such as:
• Osborn Road (19th Avenue -20th Street)
• Missouri Avenue (19th Avenue – 24th Street)
• Virginia Street (Central Avenue – 7th Street)
• Others previously discussed

Other Items

The City of Phoenix submitted an application for an FTA Pilot Grant for transit-oriented development (TOD) in June 2016 for the South Central LRT Corridor. The Pilot Program for TOD Planning helps communities by providing funding to local communities to integrate land use and transportation planning with a New Starts or fixed-guideway project. TPP staff completed two applications for the FY2016 MAG Design Assistance program. Both projects received funding and staff kicked off the pre-design work for projects on Oak and Missouri Streets.

The Multi-modal Level of Service Study led by MAG is a planning effort to prepare a system to measure Levels of Service for walking and bicycling in select corridors in Mesa, Tempe, Glendale and Phoenix.

The City of Phoenix worked very closely with Valley Metro, MAG and the National Association of City Transportation Officials to hold a workshop on potential concepts for on-street Bus Rapid Transit on Thomas Road and various design concepts to address safe pedestrian and bicycle access for the South Central LRT Corridor.

Street Transportation Department staff has been coordinating efforts with the Planning and Development Department on a number of projects and initiatives including:
• Update to General Plan and the specific village activity centers
• Impact Fee Program
• Alley activation
• Reinvent Phoenix implementation
• Street Classification Map revisions
• Complete Streets coordination with developers

Please join us on Saturday, July 9, starting at 9:30 a.m. at the Roosevelt Commons Clubhouse, 825 N. 6th Avenue, for the next Downtown Voices Coalition Steering Committee meeting. Agenda below. To review what transpired at the June meeting, click here.

WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS (Tim Eigo)

ADMINISTRATION

Subcommittee Updates:

• Best Practices in RFPs (Andie Abkarian)
• Community Benefits & GPLETs (Jeff Sherman)

Recap of Parsons Center for Health & Wellness building tour

GUEST TOPIC

• Campaign Finance Reform in Arizona (Rep. Ken Clark)
• Homelessness in Central Phoenix (Mo Gallegos, Human Services Dept., and Roberto Frietz, Neighborhood Services Dept.)

EAST OF CENTRAL UPDATES

• Deck Park Vista Apartments RFP (Cindy Stotler, Housing Dept.)
• 7th St. & Roosevelt Electronic Billboard
• Phoenix Biomedical Campus strategic planning
• Hines Development’s Central & Fillmore “The Canyon” Project
• 12th Street Light Rail Station

WEST OF CENTRAL UPDATES

• Stewart Motor Company/Circles Building

MULTI-NEIGHBORHOOD UPDATES

• Hance Park
• Citizens Transportation Committee

DOWNTOWN CORE UPDATES

• Arizona Center for Law and Society (parking & opening)
• Block 23

UPCOMING EVENTS (share your list!)

NEW BUSINESS

ADJOURNMENT

We look forward to seeing you on July 9. Thanks for all that you do for our community.

Tim Eigo
Chair, Steering Committee
Downtown Voices Coalition
tim.eigo@downtownvoices.org

Please join us on Saturday, March 12, starting at 9:30 a.m. at the Roosevelt Commons Clubhouse, 825 N. 6th Avenue, for the next Downtown Voices Coalition Steering Committee meeting.

WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS

ADMINISTRATION

Call for Steering Committee and Officer Nominations

Subcommittees

• Community Benefits & GPLETs
• Best Practices in RFPs
• DVC Fund Development

NEIGHBORHOOD MATTERS

Evans Churchill

• Knipe House (Dan Klocke)
• Derby Roosevelt Row GPLET
• Wurth House
• 3rd St. Promenade

Grand Avenue/Triangle

• Grand Avenue Lofts (Cole Van Norman)

Downtown Core

• Block 23 (Jeff Sherman)
• Barrister Building
• Welnick Marketplace (Sherry Rampy)
• Downtown Alley Study Group (Jeff Sherman)

Multi-Neighborhood

• FAA Flight Path (Steve Dreiseszun)
• Arizona State Fair (Jim McPherson)
• Roosevelt BID (Ben Henderson)
• Hance Park
• Liquor Stores Near Neighborhoods (state legislation)

Roosevelt

• Circles Building
• 3rd & 5th Ave. Streetscape (Karl Obergh)
• Phoenix Trolley Museum (Bob Graham)
• West Fillmore RFP (Dave Krietor)

Garfield

• 7th St. & Portland Sinclair/Dinomart (Raleigh Dombek)
• 7th St. & Roosevelt Electronic Billboard (Jennifer Boucek)

Midtown

• Large property accumulation between Heard Museum and Phoenix Arts Museum (as announced at Encanto VPC)

Other

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Viva Phoenix, March 12
• Art Detour 28, March 19-20
• Phoenix Urban Design Week, March 30 – April 7
• Hands On Greater Phoenix Serve-a-Thon, April 16
• Other

NEW BUSINESS

New Downtown Phoenix Podcast: www.onthegridphx.com or https://www.facebook.com/onthegridphx/

Next Meeting, Saturday, April 9, 2016, 9:30 a.m.

ADJOURNMENT

We look forward to seeing you on March 12. Thanks for all that you do for our community.

Tim Eigo
Chair, Steering Committee
Downtown Voices Coalition
tim.eigo@downtownvoices.org

Please join us on Saturday, January 9, starting at 9:30 a.m. at the Roosevelt Commons Clubhouse, 825 N. 6th Avenue, for the next Downtown Voices Coalition Steering Committee meeting. We’ll ring in the new year in some form or fashion.

WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS ~ Tim Eigo, Chair

GUEST SPEAKERS
• Alan Stephenson/Joshua Bednarek, City of Phoenix
• David Sax/Christy McClendon, New Pathways for Youth

EVERYWHERE ELSE!
• Alley Abandonments (Arcadia precedent?) ~ Jeff Sherman, Robert Warnicke
• Hance Park Conservancy
• Phoenix Sky Harbor Flight Path
• Roosevelt Business Improvement District proposal
• Other

EAST OF CENTRAL
• 7th St. & Roosevelt electronic billboard ~ Jennifer Boucek
• The Oscar (2nd St. & Portland)
• Transwestern’s Derby revisit (2nd St. & McKinley)
• Wurth House (4th St. & Roosevelt)
• Other

WEST OF CENTRAL
• Arizona State Fairgrounds ~ Jim McPherson
• West Fillmore RFP ~ Tim Eigo
• 7th Ave. & Roosevelt proposal ~ Will Rodriguez
• Other

BRAINSTORMING FOR 2016
• Downtown Strategic Vision
• Affordable/Attainable Housing
• Use of GPLET
• RFP “Best Practices”
• Ground Floor Retail
• Downtown Grocery Store
• Light Rail Extensions
• “1,000 Miles of New Bike Lanes”
• Other

EVENTS & ACTIVITIES

• College Football Championship Downtown Campus, Jan. 8-10
• DTPHX Sampler, Jan. 8-11
• Artlink activities ~ Catrina Kahler
• Other

NEW/OTHER BUSINESS

ADJOURNMENT

We look forward to seeing you on January 9. Thanks for all that you do for our community.

Tim Eigo
Chair, Steering Committee
Downtown Voices Coalition
tim.eigo@downtownvoices.org

Please join us on Saturday, December 12, starting at 9:30 a.m. at the Roosevelt Commons Clubhouse, 825 N. 6th Avenue, for the next Downtown Voices Coalition Steering Committee meeting. We’ll also be celebrating the holidays with special food and drink cheer provided by Steering Committee members.

WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS

GUEST SPEAKER

• Josh Delk, Assoc. VP, Transwestern Development Co., proposed housing project in Evans Churchill

NEWS & UPDATES (SOUTH TO NORTH)

• Warehouse District Business Expansions
• Phoenix Sky Harbor Flight Path
• Alley Abandonment Committee
• Garfield Neighborhood/7th St. Electronic Billboard
• Roosevelt Business Improvement District
• E. Roosevelt Planters
• Wurth House Renovation
• Hance Park Conservancy
• Hance Park Dog Park Winter Issues
• Other

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Roosevelt Row Shop & Dine Local Campaign
• College Football Championship Campus, Jan. 8-10 (Samantha Jackson, DPI)
• Other great events that attendees might speak about (e.g., Phoenix Festival of the Arts, Radiate Phoenix, Phoestivus, CitySkate, Radical Rankings, City Lights Movie Nights, Phoenix Startup Week, ASU Downtown Night of the Open Door)

NEW/OTHER BUSINESS

• End of year contributions to your favorite downtown charity? DVC, local schools, Hance Park, etc.

NEXT MEETING: 9:30 a.m., Saturday, January 9, 2016

HOLIDAY FESTIVITIES

ADJOURNMENT

We look forward to seeing you on December 12. Thanks for all that you do for our community. And happy holidays!

Tim Eigo
Chair, Steering Committee
Downtown Voices Coalition
tim.eigo@downtownvoices.org