DOWNTOWN PROVO STRATEGIC PLAN 
WORKSHOP NOTES #1 

1.  MODEL PLACES  (Participants were asked to describe qualities they think would be valuable in downtown Provo & identify other places where they have seen these qualities present)

Cultural Development

• Art house cinema, * Grand Junction, CO Avalon Theater
• New, retrofit, combine with convention center
• Springville
• More public art: keep going past 500 W, Grand Junction
• Strong Housing component in downtown, concentrate higher density.
• Pedestrian friendly, wayfinding, Chicago, interest along walk
• Emphasis on history: preserve and ensure compatibility
• Denver—16^th Street
• Boulder, CO: art, pedestrian
• Safety and interest for pedestrians, lighting, windows—specifically on University Ave.
• Transit: Main Street in SLC, Portland, BRT, Frontrunner
• Gathering places: Albuquerque, Pasadena
• Downtown businesses—unique stores, no empty store fronts.
• Cluster "themed" businesses
• Farmers Market in Pasadena
• Move to center of Provo
• Transit
• More events & promotion, like the Gallery Stroll
• Portland, OR
• Landscaping: pleasant place to walk
• Kings Street, Alexandria, VA
• More unique dining
• Keep downtown as arts and entertainment center
• Don’t lose buildings for parking
• Landscaping—planters—Chicago
• Boulevard from freeway access
• More professional office—get people downtown
• Need more convenient parking.
• Civic presence
• Local authority to manage landscaping
• Boston-duck pond, ice skating
• Gateway fountain SLC
• FrontRunner-access from the station to Downtown
• Better bike facilities—Copenhagen, Denmark
• Provo has opportunity to be a model for Utah Co—transit, BRT
• ADA access & mobility
• Build on what is working now—Long Beach, CA
• Student population
• Vancouver, Toronto
• Pasadena—Flexcar system
• San Diego
• Montrose, CA
• Create and arts and entertainment district
• Pella, Iowa—use Dutch heritage as theme, mixed uses, local and national businesses historic buildings, an adult playground

2.  STRENGTHS & OPPORTUNITIES - (Participants were asked to identify positive aspects of downtown Provo which the community should build on.  These were grouped into general categories.)

Category 1, Arts, Events and Entertainment

• Summer Farmers Market
• Programming – CCA DBA
• Downtown Gallery Stroll
• Gallery Stroll
• Events Freedom Festival
• Good Night Life (Arts and Entertainment)
• Growing Vitality of Arts Community, Gallery Stroll (creates interest beyond galleries and businesses involved)
• Art Galleries
• Museums / Gardens

• Large Downtown Area
• Good Accessibility
• Wide Streets
• Easy to identify town center (center and University) W public, gut, religious buildings
• Easy to Navigate for out of towners
• Future Development & Proximity of Provo City Airport

• Historic Neighborhoods
• Location of Neighborhoods
• Downtown close to viable neighborhoods (Joaquin, Maeser)
• Close to residential neighborhoods
• Close Neighborhoods
• Close Neighborhoods

• The people
• Family Recreation
• Clean and Family oriented community
• Dedicated & Highly capable – Physician’s Support
• We have a critical mass
• People who love this valley
• Great People
• Wonderful People
• Motivated Creative Brain Trust
• Highly Articulate, Forward looking dynamics

Category 5, Unique Business

• Existing Destination Stores
• Diversity in Business
• Velour
• Destinations Venues (Retail, Restaurants, Entertainment)
• Wide Variety of Business Types
• Great specialty shoe store/art store/sandwich theme stores/knickerbocker
• Great places for small businesses
• Other than restaurants, not a lot of competing businesses
• Great unbalance
• Local businesses
• People / shops
• Niche – especially retail

• Covey Center for the Arts
• Public Art
• Arts presence
• Arts
• Arts
• New center for the arts: Gallery Stroll
• Covey Center for Arts
• Public Art Sculptures and murals
• Performing Arts center
• Public Art
• Art Center
• Arts
• Center for the Arts
• Arts
• Murals
• Sego Arts
• Sculptures
• Covey Center

Category 7, Downtown Housing

• Live-Work Mixed Use
• Downtown housing potential
• Senior Living
• Potential Mixed Use
• Compact
• Future Mixed Use Buildings / Wall cable

• Safety / Comfort
• LDS Cultural – a safer place
• No (less) smoking / drinking
• Safe
• Safety / Police presence
• Police presence
• Safe Downtown
• Safe

• Large Entrepreneurial Population
• Part of a strong Economy
• Infrastructure Ripe for new beginnings
• Large daytime population
• NuSkin – large world headquarter business attracts from around the world
• Acknowledged Regional Center
• Strong office and professional development
• Corporate offices
• Office Space
• Professional Offices
• Commercial Density
• Wells Fargo Mixed Use Building
• Wells Fargo / Zion’s
• Growing Momentum and interest potential
• Convention Momentum with office and housing buildings
• New developments (arts center, conference center, Wells Fargo, Zions, etc.)
• New building
• University Street Office Development (north of Center Street)
• People = Economics. Business & Office (NuSkin, Wells Fargo, Zions complex, county offices, city offices)
• Development Hooks
• Convention Centers / Office Space / Hotels
• Convention Center
• Convention Center
• Major Corporation (NuSkin)
• Professional Base
• Large daytime population (work force)
• Office – professional
• Large daytime population

• Light Rail to Downtown
• Working intermodel
• Multiple Forms of transportation (cars / mass transit / pedestrians)
• Future transit access Intermodel Commuter Rail / BRT
• Potential for light rail

• Trees – visually pleasing downtown landscaping
• Landscape / beauty
• Landscape on Center St.
• Large trees
• Walkable area with trees
• Public green space
• Green space like Tabernacle park
• Plants

• Dining
• Variety of Restaurants (international)
• Dining and specialty retail
• Los Hermanos
• Dining and Entertainment
• Various Dining Experiences
• Dining
• More unique dining
• Good dining areas with character (Center Street)

• Natural Beauty of the area
• Beauty of surrounding landscape
• Utah Lake / Easy access / Natural resources
• Environmental quality assets

• Traffic calming techniques in place
• Traffic control

• Government Center
• Government
• Government Hub
• Financial Center and Government Center
• Courts
• County Seat
• Police / fire station / traffic court – convenient
• Government Offices
• Seat of Utah County

• Student Vitality Proximity
• 60,000+ college students (from all over the world)
• Universities (2)
• University Population
• More activity for BYU students
• BYU and UVSC students can easily be attracted to downtown
• University and college students
• Large and Vibrant Student population (60,000)
• Large student market
• College town
• BYU students
• BYU
• Student population
• Universities
• Students
• Close to BYU
• Proximity to BYU – County’s largest employer
• National Press / Already recognized

• Historic Buildings
• Restored Historic Buildings
• Great Architecture
• Historic Buildings
• Historic and Picturesque buildings
• There are still Historic Buildings standing (we haven’t torn them ALL down yet)
• Historic Buildings provide connection to local history and culture
• Historic buildings are well kept
• Old buildings
• Historic Buildings
• History
• History
• Historic Buildings on Center Street, downtown area – must be preserved
• Beauty
• Historic
• Historic Character
• Strong sense of place (Center St.)
• Historic Base
• Architectural
• Unique Historic Downtown
• Historic Downtown
• The LDS people believe in restorations!
• Make the most of Historic Buildings
• History
• Historic Structures / Sense of Place
• Historic Buildings
• Historic Presence
• Beautiful Historic Buildings
• Unique Architecture
• Provo Tabernacle Historic Buildings
• Availability of Historic Buildings
• Historic Buildings

• Realistically, this is a bikeable city (manageable size to get places on bike, just needs to be safer, more pleasant)
• Centralized downtown – easy to walk between businesses with only having to park once
• Pedestrian Access
• Walkability
• Walkable
• Walkability
• Existing center street character (building scale design / landscaped center medians) 

3.  WEAKNESSES & THREATS (Participants were asked to identify aspects of downtown Provo which hinder the area's progress or could work against the downtown in the future.  These were grouped into general categories)

 Category 1,  Special Interest Groups and Exclusivity

• Determine whom Provo is marketing to
• Embracing BYU
• Better job at collectively marketing
• BYU downtown Lack of connection
• Need more out reach to student population
• Connect BYU to downtown
• Won’t use the assets available (such as the Lake and BYU)
• Doesn’t attract enough students
• Lack of unified vision
• Exclusivity must include non-LDS community
• Special interest groups
• Large population that changes/moves sense of "their town" lost
• Not enough attention paid to students
• Exclusivity, perception that if you’re not LDS you can’t be here
• Neighborhood opposition to change and new development
• Remember to include surrounding neighborhoods in support base
• Need more Spanish fluency
• Threats: shopping mall competition
• Desire to remain unchanged
• Neighborhoods becoming temporary housing

• Ugly / empty storefronts
• Empty store fronts can indicate sense of abandonment
• Building vacancies
• BLIGHT - Landscaping and Building appearance (curb appeal)
• Empty storefronts
• Vacancies
• Property owner coordination/cooperation/vision
• BLIGHT (buildings not kept up)
• Lighting of dark storefronts
• Small Business / stores loss to downtown
• Vacancy
• Land squatting (speculative owners just waiting empty)
• High turnover of businesses, especially restaurants
• Lack of Maint. Or reinvestment in some buildings
• Deteriorating Buildings / Vacancies
• Out of state building owners
• Property owners willing to invest
• Vacant – underutilized buildings
• Store fronts
• Neglected buildings
• Negligent building owners
• Empty retail space
• Empty, deteriorating buildings
• Bricks falling
• Malls threaten downtown revitalization
• Ugly backs
• Storefront storage
• Maintenance – litter & buildings
• Eliminate ugly vacant buildings and visible storage
• Businesses that don’t shovel snow
• Vacant buildings with messy store front
• Land banking
• Land banking, neglecting buildings, destruction of landmarks
• Run down buildings
• Run down buildings
• Run down, neglected buildings

• Lack of nice gathering place
• Outside gathering spot
• No gathering place
• Needs more areas for gathering.

• Steel mill and related air quality. Need greener trans options
• Air pollution – temperature inversions
• Air quality – is a real concern and immediate problem (all Utah Valley, Wasatch Front)
• Air Pollution . Poor air quality
• Provo development must pay attention to limited water we face

• Few / need more specialty / small groceries
• Upgrade in dining
• Lack of outside dining (summer)
• More sidewalk dining
• Need street vendors
• Need café
• Maintaining uniqueness while attracting national chains – dining, stores, etc.

Category 6, Airport

• Airport
• Airport
• Airport

• Loss of green space around Provo. Need to invest in center Provo / need incentives for it
• Need more green to cover eyesores
• Wish we had new retaining walls for the flower beds, they are crumbling
• Wish we had more access to Tabernacle Park
• Loss of green belt areas

Category 8, Nightlife

• Dark streets – nightlife, neglected buildings
• We say we want a night life, but then city ordinances make businesses have 70 parking stalls and 8 bathrooms and so they’re looking for a new place
• More late night cafes or restaurant pubs / nightlife

• No night life 

Category 9, Gateway beautification and Image

• No Gateway. It’s connection to airport traffic flow quality of life
• One street down
• Limited definition of downtown
• Awful entrance statement
• Misnamed Provo Towne "Centre" Mall
• West Center Street
• Need to improve entrance from freeway onto Center
• Image
• University Ave. Bisects Area
• Center street character – West of 500 west – Gateway
• Need Visual idea / image of future development to hold on to. avoid bland ugly spaces / buildings
• No entrance
• Entrance corridor
• Lack of community feel / real center of town
• Ugly center street freeway interchange
• West Center Street a gateway downtown

• Not great information center about happenings
• Lack of events

• Negative attitudes towards historic preservation
• High cost of renovation
• We must preserve historic buildings / houses
• Loss of Historic character (destruction of historic buildings)
• Accessibility (lack of) Perception
• Afraid of change
• Preservation – Historical and new
• Danger of losing historic buildings
• Doesn’t look uniformed or blend well
• Destruction of Historic structures
• Thoughtless demolition (historic)
• Historic preservation

• More aggressive incentives to attract businesses
• Way to measure success
• Better incentives – for redevelopment base upon regulations
• Need to position itself
• Competing suburban sprawl
• Cheap / mortgage fraud / get rich quick scheme
• Ownership
• Long term financing
• Covey Center should get more money
• Finances public / private coop.
• Compliance / tax pressures on existing and start up businesses
• Borderline excess restrictive reg. and compliance costs
• Wish we had a growth ring encouraging developers to reinvest the center
• Funding
• Rents too low to support new retail development
• Need more corporate presence to replace Novell types in downtown
• Redevelopment Costs – providing a mixture of income of housing
• Local economy income doesn’t support expensive projects
• Limited financial strength
• Cheaper land in north county
• Needs vs. sources

• Crime
• Safety – especially violence against women. Provo has higher incidents of rape than national average
• Crime rate goes up

• Less discretionary time to shop, eat, etc.

• Parking / access
• Parking – lack of it. Far from Businesses downtown
• Parking
• Perhaps need to market downtown better – collectively or by City. Parking / convenience
• Perception of parking
• Innovative parking
• Large surface parking lots
• Parking
• Parking
• Parking
• Removing parking on University Ave. = bad
• Parking access
• Stronger police presence i.e. speeding crosswalks (center street)
• Neighbors perceive safety of downtown area
• Traffic enforcement (Center Street)
• Parking enforcement
• Inconsistent on lack of regulatory enforcement
• Parking, transit difficulties
• Parking (enforcement, availability, knowledge)
• Unsafe sidewalks during bad weather – snow!
• University Ave. (etc.) excessive speed / poor parking

• Surrounding areas are run down – non developed
• Zoning
• Zoning change
• Transition into neighborhoods – lack of neighborhood identification and protection
• Architecture of importance
• Encourage what we want
• Not a good use of existing land
• Location of half way houses – zoning
• Apartment / high density housing taking over historic neighborhoods

• Difficult to access downtown – luck coordinate and parking a transit
• Traffic University Ave.
• Not walkable enough
• If we don’t plow the bike lanes, should they be cross country ski lanes?
• Congestion of roadways. I-15 and access to downtown
• Too many cars
• Congestion
• Traffic
• Winters make walking/biking and flowers different in Provo than Pasadena
• Lack of public transportation
• Fast runner 1^st priority
• Culture turned to suburbs to suburbs house – car – box store – car house. Removes sense of community. Removes interaction with neighbors. Contributes to obesity
• Conversion to car – contained safety zone (people used to only being in cars, stores feel walking half a block isn’t far)
• Past 20-30 years of development, unintentional adoption of boxed in patterns negative affect on quality of life = people feel they don’t have a choice. Box stores, malls
• Assumptions that automobiles are central
• Pedestrian "no man’s lands" – 500 W., University Ave.
• University Avenue – Walkable with transit
• Need better transit
• Non-car traffic seen as only seasonal
• Pollution (some of the worst in the country) Better transit, cautious about airport, long term planning
• Lack of "free" bus service from BYU – downtown
• Need downtown free shuttle service and BYU connection
• Easy clean, safe pedestrian, trans system, trolley – street cars

• Non owner occupied housing problem in Provo
• Student Housing downtown
• More housing rental / ownership
• Housing
• Legitimate high density housing
• Need more after hours population housing
• Housing Diversity
• Need to add quality residential density to downtown
• Mixed use housing is expensive and hard to find buyers, financing
• Mixed use needs downtown living which brings other business needs – grocery, more entertainment, gyms
• Not enough residents
• Need better public awareness of mixed use living opportunities and benefits of them
• Offices Retail Housing is run down – need to rehab.
• Lack of affordable home ownership opportunities near downtown
• Out culture for empty nester has a different meaning in housing
• Need to become a 24 hour downtown
• From a resident: what about turning historic buildings upstairs downtown into affordable studio apartments? Would be perfect on the main block

• Dreams vs. reality
• Less talk more action

• Food coalition Transients
• Homelessness
• No homeless shelter