NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce CEO Debra Teufel is pleased that the City Council chose to approve the Downtown Master Plan as policy at their June 18 meeting.
"We talked about, it was two years ago right now when we first made the request for them to support a portion of the funding for the plan, and that was really because we had had a coalition of organizations and individuals working together on a plan to improve downtown," Teufel said. "To really take it to the next level, we wanted to engage with a professional firm that could help us look at this landscape and give us some ideas of what recommendations they would have for our community. And so in order to do that, we had gone out for a bid and Olsson Studios was the company selected. At that time, we only had raised about half of the funding. Much of that was from the Nation Meyer Fund and from other philanthropy that the Community Foundation was very instrumental in helping raise. When we made that request to the city, we knew that would be a big ask of them, but you could see city council then and now supports very much investing in the heart of the city as a driver for other economic activity across the community."
The approval process was important to allow the council to see where the plan can be tailored to their vision of the future of Hutchinson.
"It was a good opportunity for them to read the plan and study it in depth, but also get feedback from the citizens," Teufel said. "I think there was a lot of feedback on Tuesday and that was important for the city to hear because it will impact how we all go forward in the implementation steps."
From a city perspective, getting the shared infrastructure worked on is an area they can attack first.
"There are some areas that maybe previously had some streetscaping done, but maybe those are starting to crumble," Teufel said. "Maybe there needs to be more ADA accessibility and the city has applied for a grant and hopefully will receive it that will start helping with that. There are definitely some sidewalks that need attention. There are probably some parking lots that need attention. I would call those infrastructure, but also wayfinding signage and the entrances into downtown. There's many recommendations in there about how those visuals, but also actual built infrastructure help give confidence to retailers that then want to move into downtown."
The Downtown Master Plan was passed unanimously.
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