Downtown Revitalization quarterly meeting, Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at
the Downtown Club, Kern St., Fresno
Attendance: 80+

I. Presentation (PowerPoint, questions & answers, informal). Craig, Elliot,
audience
A. A Specific Plan raises property values 14%
  1. Moule & Polyzoides Architects and Urbanists of Pasadena have been
selected
      http://www.mparchitects.com/index2.html
  2. $900K of CDBG will be used for Specific Plan
  3. Over the 3 year period for developing the Specific Plan, $3.5M will be
used
  4. Ask any person in business downtown and they will give you the same
answer. Layered code is bad for business. That is, a suffocation of
requirements by the city to conduct a business. A minefield of regulations
that seem to morph deeper as each requirement is met.
  5. Clarity for Specific Plan
  6. Incentive as much as $250k for building downtown with a Specific Plan
B. Downtown events
  1. New non-profit will be formed, FACES - Fresno Arts, Culture,
Entertainment & Sports
  2. Each weekend of the year will be an event . 53 events
  3. The FACES will not be a city dept. but a separate non-profit
organization
  4. Downtown Association has no 501C3 (non-profit)
  5. 501C3 will be able to accept donations and be involved politically,
i.e., lobby
  6. 30 events are held in Reno per year and it requires a great deal of
time & effort.
  7. 17 people are required for events to be held in San Diego
    a. Jan currently has 2 people for Fresno
C. PBID
  1. $742k is budgeted
  2. The PBID represents everyone
  3. The PBID is assessed on sq. ft. not value
  4. 3 levels of assessment. Approx 5% Fulton Mall, 7% Van Ness corridor and
88% entire marked downtown area. More assessment fee means more services.
D. Public Market
  1. Seattle’s Pikes Place sell Merced grown strawberries.
  2. Fresno will market its own home grown produce
  3. An exact location has not been determined. Looking at area near
stadium.
  4. It will be located in a building and have an additional farmers market
outside on weekends.
E. Questions:
  1. We want entertainment, residences, restaurants, etc.
  2. We’re exploring the idea of reducing parking lot fees at the
underground garage, spiral garage, & near the Smokehouse to encourage
strolling through Fulton Mall to the stadium.
  3. Specific Plan will have a separate web site & be community driven
  4. In the past, the city council requested that the vacant downtown
buildings be inventoried and the results were the size of the two lost World
Trade Center Towers. Many plans have focused on the downtown area over the
years. How will this Specific Plan have results?
   a. Skeptic or cynic? (humor) We encourage skepticism.
     1) I’m quite optimistic, that’s why I’m here.
   b. It’s 3 dimensional vs. 2 dimensional planning. In the past, our
planning dept. has always given us 2 dimensional planning. People live in a
three dimensional world and that’s what this Specific Plan gives us.
  5. Fresh & Easy Market has been unoccupied for over a year.
  6. Need a Community Calendar for events downtown.
    a. We need help in communication of being authentic. An artistic
approach might be useful.
  7. We need to have businesses like ethnic restaurants and not Big Box
stores.
  8. We need to build on existing art and artists that are already here.

Next meeting:  January 26, 2010
Thanks, Randy Nelson