NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Downtown Master Plan was unveiled for the City of Hutchinson at a meeting at Memorial Hall Thursday night. The meeting did not have a formal presentation, rather it was broken down into eight focus areas that people could walk around the room and digest and then give their feedback on.
"The most important thing to do right now is take all of the information that we've gathered," said Hutchinson Interim City Manager Mary Grace Clements. "Now, we have to come up with a priority and an action plan, because there's funding that has to be secured to make this all come to fruition. The next step is look at all of this, where do we start, what's the priority, how do we fund it, not only for what we want to do now, but for the entire plan and program. That's our goal."
There were sticky notes and places to put them by each of the areas Olsson Studios had already mapped out. In other words, they don't feel their work is done yet, and Vice Mayor Greg Fast is looking forward to that additional feedback. It is important to make sure that whatever is done, making downtown a place that is well lit at night is important.
"That's one of the first things on my list," Fast said. "I live downtown and we could have much better lighting just on the streetlights downtown. That will brighten everything up. There's a lot of little things that we can do, maybe they are a part of this plan, but things that we know we need to get working on right now."
City Human Relations Director Dave Sotelo believes that if the goals set out in the Master Plan are followed, it will help raise the standard for the people in the area, without pricing them out of living downtown.
"It's very clear on the need for market rate housing and affordable housing," Sotelo said. "We stay true to those priorities. Gentrification's always a concern when you come to a neighborhood and you reinvest and you make it more attractive to live, but I think if we include people from the neighborhood, look at the Wiley Building, that was, actually, who is moving into that area is people who can afford to live in that area, because it might be expensive to live elsewhere. It can be beneficial for folks who normally can't afford regular rent to provide more opportunities for housing."
The final report from Olsson Studios will likely take a few weeks to get, though there wasn't a ton of new feedback given Thursday based on the notes left on the walls.
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