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Rockport, TX
Rockport Cultural Arts District: Rockport’s shifted its economic trajectory by defining a downtown cultural arts district which features a unique blend of (1) historical architecture and unique built form leftover from its legacy as a 19th century port and railroad hub and (2) a cluster of eclectic art galleries, bars and transplanted resident retirees.
Texas City, TX
Starting in 2016, the City of Texas City launched the Stay Classy Texas City Beautification Award program for small business beautification projects ranging from façade improvements to landscaping and signage upgrades. The program was meant as both a way to provide needed improvements but also as a token of gratitude to local businesses for their meaningful contributions to the local economy.
East End - Houston, TX
As a result of the Livable Centers study conducted in 2009, a key catalytic project from the East End Management District’s efforts is the Navigation Esplanade, which boasts weekend markets with solar powered booths and year-round festivals.
Main Street - Houston, TX
In 2017, the City of Houston formed the Walkable Places Committee to place pedestrians at the leading edge of developer’s design considerations at key sites and locations. Main Street between Dallas and Lamar Streets bars all auto traffic to create a passenger- and pedestrian-only zone in the right of way along the north-south METRO Rail line.
Norfolk, VA
Downtown Norfolk has built a host of amenities along their waterfront, connecting downtown retail, arts, and nightlife experiences with pedestrian accessible parks, trails, and festival destinations. For example, the Elizabeth River Trail is a 10.5-mile urban pedestrian and bike trail along the Norfolk waterfront, maintained and marketed by the Friends of the Elizabeth River Trail Foundation with support from the City of Norfolk.
San Diego, CA
To maximize currently underutilized streets in downtown San Diego, the City is constructing six pedestrian-only promenades. In mid-2020 construction began on the “14th Street Promenade,” which will run for 11 blocks and be landscaped with lighting, trees, and outdoor furniture. The promenades are part of the Downtown San Diego Mobility Plan, which was approved by the City Council in 2016.
Houston, TX
The Houston Downtown Management District released design guidelines to promote a walkable neighborhood on the east side of Downtown. The design guide specifies active ground floor uses—including retail, public spaces, fitness facilities, day care centers and more—in addition to ground floor design to encourage well-lit, street-oriented entrances.
Georgetown, TX
The City of Georgetown designed a coordinated system of wayfinding and public signage to get vehicles and pedestrians to and around downtown. They identified the need for a city-wide system of signs due to rapid population and geographic growth of the City, and the corresponding development of many new public amenities
Lincoln, MA
Lincoln wayfinding orients many visitors to their nationally historic sites of interest, and helps to promote an area business who fabricated the entire signage system.
Amarillo, TX
The City of Amarillo provides matching grants of up to $3,000 to advance the creation of public art in five geographic areas across the city, including the Central Business District. According to city officials, the program has many benefits ranging from enhancing community appeal, promoting civic pride, adding jobs in the arts, and creating awareness of the importance arts and culture to the community.
Houston, TX
The City of Houston manages both the Civic Art Program and the Traffic Signal Control Cabinet (TSCC) Art Program. Through the Civic Art program, a range of permanent and temporary art projects on public facilities ranging from murals on public buildings to artistic wraps on public fleet vehicles. The TSCC leverages an often-neglected piece of public utility equipment that is present at every signaled intersection. The program is overseen by the Office of the Mayor in coordination with Public Works & Engineering.
Seabrook, TX
Seabrook’s Pelican Path is home to more than 43 larger-than-life painted pelicans that give the city character and attract tourists. The Seabrook Merchant and Tourist Association worked with local artists to deploy pelicans around the city—some are whimsical, others celebrate Seabrook as a bird sanctuary, and some represent regional attractions, like NASA. Some pelicans were sponsored by local businesses.
Elgin, TX
For over 30 years the City of Elgin has proudly and creatively promoted its status as the Sausage Capital of Texas in hosting the annual Hogeye Festival on their historic Main Street. Hogeye is a family and community-oriented event featuring all things swine. The festival has grown to a multi-day event featuring charity art auctions, BBQ cook-off, Queen Sowpreme and King Hog contests, Cow Patty Bingo and more. The event draws thousands every year and proceeds also go to supporting local businesses in Downtown Elgin.
Austin, TX
The City of Austin hosts major events within primary downtown corridors of Congress Avenue and 6th Street nearly 40% of weekend days of the year. The Pecan Street Festival is one of the longest-running arts/crafts and music festivals in the country. Shops and artisan dealers are placed within the center of the right-of-way so that pedestrians can still access frontages of existing stores, bars and restaurants. Initially designed to promote historic preservation, the Pecan Street has grown and expanded to be a major fundraising event for dozens of area arts, culture, music and historical non-profits.
Victoria, TX
Victoria, TX Preservation Incentive Program: Façade improvements and other grants for relevant forms of preservation are open to owner-occupied or tenant-occupied sites in one of Victoria’s five Historic Districts. Sites are not required to be a state or nationally registered historic site, but must articulate their connection and place in Victoria’s history. Additionally, any demolition permits within the historic districts require a 60 day delay to allow for any possible community appeals.
Bonham, TX
Downtown Bonham "Save Our Structures" Program: The City of Bonham and the Bonham EDC jointly provide grant funds to businesses or owners to engage with design professionals and assess essential structural and aesthetic improvements to get buildings up to code standards.
Lenexa, KS
The City of Lenexa has won national awards for its stormwater management planning, including the Rain to Recreation program. The city’s approach focuses on a community-driven vision with multiple living documents and adaptive plans to continually improve projects and programs for the benefit of area water resources—ultimately the community’s streams and watersheds drive and guide the city’s Land Disturbance Ordinance which includes water body-based setback requirements and pollution regulations.
Millcreek Township, PA
Millcreek requires that all new parking lots in the city to include 7% vegetation coverage, mandatory for all lots with more than 15 spaces. The ordinance is designed to increase pervious surfaces to increase groundwater recharge while also mitigating runoff and enhancing the built environment.
Pearland, TX
Pearland’s zoning code includes four zoned mixed-use districts—some of which also feature sub-districts—defined by their respective character, concentrations of uses, density, or degrees of pedestrian-orientation.
Galveston, TX
As a result of a Livable Center’s study recommendation, Galveston created a "Central Business" zone which allows for residential and non-residential uses, discourages industrial uses, and has no off-street parking requirement allowing for greater flexibility in development.
Fulshear, TX
Fulshear’s Livable Center study (completed in 2018) resulted in a downtown zoning typology designed to cultivate a vibrant, walkable, mixed-use community with richly-programmed public and private spaces. The downtown zone was such a strong fit for the community that in April 2020 an area developer of a 125-acre property near the historic downtown opted for and received approval for a zoning change from rural residential to downtown district.
Bastrop, TX
Bastrop adopted the Bastrop Building Block (or B3) Code as a flexible land-use policy that will allow for growth to be steered to sustainable investments, pay for aging infrastructure, and limited outdated development patterns that do not serve the local population. It carries the cities’ historic block and lot structure forward as the template for future development to reflect its history as a walkable, vibrant moderate-density core.
Bryan, TX
The City of Bryan initiated an innovative code concept known as pattern zoning which codified allowable developments based on their location along the South College Avenue and College Main corridors. Five different development districts are designated as focused planning areas which “incorporate physical, cultural and social realms to align and advance a desired way of living, working and playing while clearly distinguishing the unique personality of an area.” Existing property uses are not required to meet new code requirements unless a new development or redevelopment concept is pursued
Houston, TX
Fifth Ward Community Revitalization Corporation acquired the historic St. Elizabth Hospital and are leading the building through remediation and renovation of the building. This investment will position the property for adaptive reuse and adding much needed new and affordable housing units for local residents while also revitalizing a vacant and historically significant building.
Waco, TX
The Magnolia Market at the Silos in Waco was a highly success privately adaptive reuse project in the heart of the city which quickly became the community’s top tourist attraction and destination shopping center. Building upon this successful private development, the city’s downtown TIF has now committed $1.1 million toward the infrastructure improvements needed for an expansion of the development into two neighboring blocks which involve repurposing of several other pre-existing structures including the Second Presbyterian Church building as the anchor for the new site.
Houston, TX
The Houston Downtown Livable Centers Study (completed in 2009) identified the East Downtown district as a target for an adaptive-reuse approach for a new commercial corridor due to the presence of many large-format, short lot-line forms of the existing industrial buildings. The buildings were also concentrated along key corridors within walking distance to the Central Business District, sports arenas, and a major convention center. Using the Study as a roadmap, the East Downtown TIF district invested in major infrastructure upgrades and a pedestrian promenade to build a connective backbone to drive private investment and worked with the commercial real estate community on innovative financing tools that would preserve the culture and feel of then industrial character district.
Texas City, TX
Investor and local business owners in Texas City acquired and over the course of a year-long renovation converted a long-vacant hotel into boutique urban offices. The concept started prior to Covid-19 pandemic but has opened up to much success given the need for office spaces closer to people’s homes.
Dallas, TX
Dallas Farmers Market TIF District: The Farmers Market District TIF plan was created to revitalize a large downtown parcel adjacent to the farmers market warehouses in Downtown Dallas. The TIF district has incited the reinvestment in the market building as well as surrounding warehouses into culinary incubators, housing, offices and other mixed-use concepts that have supported and added to revitalization efforts both within the district, as well.
Waco, TX
Waco utilizes TIF Districts as an incentive tool to steer development and site improvements in 3 blighted revitalization corridors. The TIF investments have focused on stimulated multi-model connections along the Bosque and Brazos Rivers to promote and target specifically mixed-use development. The TIF funds have gone to support expansions of the Magnolia Market and retail spaces, a schoolhouse conversion to loft apartments, and entertainment venues, among others.
Memphis, TX
Memphis delivered a fifteen-year tax abatement (via Payment in Lieu of Taxes or PILOT) for $9.2 million for a local craft brewery to relocate and expand into a 43,000 sq ft facility. “Local breweries and taprooms can be catalytic to developing neighborhoods, attracting people and investment,” said Brett Roler, Downtown Memphis Commission vice president of planning and development.
Killeen, TX
Killeen City Council approved a ten-year $858,715 tax abatement deal with First National Bank in return for improvements to their existing property downtown. The investments would take the project from a single to five-story building. The city of Killeen has also established a tax abatement policy to spur revitalization in the downtown.
Nacodoches, TX
At its grand opening in 1955, the Hotel Fredonia drew a crowd of 6,000 onlookers, eager to tour what would quickly become the premier hotel and convention center in East Texas. Their hotel was the result of a community vision to increase the city’s tourism, economic vitality, and prestige by making it a travel destination. Construction of the Fredonia was supported through community fundraising: 1,100 local businesspeople invested in the project. Many decades after its heyday, the Fredonia had fallen on hard times: it closed in 1985, reopened a few years later, then shut its doors once more in 2013. The state and federal tax credit programs were instrumental in bringing the Fredonia—the largest and most storied building in Nacogdoches— back to life again. The Fredonia occupies a large complex at the edge of downtown Nacogdoches, and includes a ballroom and the city's Convention Center (at left of the image). The convention center is not historic and was not included in the tax credit project.
Borough of Carlisle, PA
Borough of Carlisle, PA was experiencing deep economic challenges after the closing of three formerly manufacturing sites comprising over 60 acres. Using a range of local, state and federal funds and private investment the City was able to leverage over $150 million as of 2020 to revitalize former abandoned sites into thriving mixed-use places.
Robstown, TX
Until 2002, a rural 67.5-acre site that had been used for years for oil and gas exploration and had eight well sites across the property lay unused. After leveraging free assessment services from the Texas Railroad commission and brownfield remediation funds, the site was cleared in 2008. By 2017 the city was able to convert the land into a baseball stadium, fairgrounds, outlet mall and enhanced detention pond for water quality improvement.
Memphis, TN
The revitalization and redevelopment of the historic Sears, Roebuck and Company Distribution Center into today’s Crosstown Concourse involved a financing stack spanning 30 funding sources including 22 federal programs, including New Markets Tax Credits. It is a marquee mixed use project for the city: the redevelopment into a LEED Platinum hub for education, cultural arts and mind, body, soul vendors, merchants and organizations.
Houston, TX
Houston’s East Downtown Management District’s manages a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone initially funded infrastructure improvements that would create capacity on par with the high density, Central Business District located to the west across Interstate-59. As investments and redevelopment ensued, including the BBVA Compass Soccer stadium, increment value continued to be reinvested into walkable corridors that would connect sites within the district as well as connections to Downtown Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center and other attractions. To ensure the area remained interesting and creative, District leaders cultivated relationships with area entrepreneurs, commercial real estate agents and real estate developers to draw small, local businesses and place them in interesting spaces and adapted reuse buildings and warehouses. Additional investments support place-making through murals, bikeways, public event sponsorships, parks and more.
The Neighborhood Recovery Community Development Corporation - Houston, TX
The Neighborhood Recovery Community Development Corporation (NRCDC) revitalizes communities with a holistic approach to economic development and investment. NRCDC operates throughout Houston, and has focused on the Third Ward since 1992. The Renaissance Center, a 100,000 square-foot retail center anchored by a grocery store, was developed by the community development corporation and has created over 375 jobs onsite, catalyzing significant economic investment within the area. NRCDC recently sold the Renaissance Center.
Community Ventures - Houston, TX
Community Ventures provides funds and capacity building assistance to non-profits in youth empowerment and workforce development programs across the state, including the maker-based youth education programs of TXRX Labs.
Dayton, TX
Dayton Community Development Corporation is a Type B economic development corporation whose mission is to promote the economic competitiveness of Dayton as well as the revitalization of the downtown. They manage a range of business incentive programs, small business loans, mural grants, façade improvement & code compliance grants, and play a key role in public-private partnership projects in a range of arenas.
Houston, TX
Houston Business Development Inc has supported small business development through trainings, direct loans and on-site incubation in Southwest Houston for over thirty years. Their services and program offer a vital lifeline for early-stage small businesses and microenterprises in Houston.
Houston, TX
The Houston First Corporation is a local government corporation managing city-owned convention and performing arts facilities and parking structures. They partner with parks, performing arts centers, and other institutions to promote Houston as a great place to live, work, and visit. Organizations like Houston First can play a major role in stimulating the local economy and improving overall quality of life by leveraging tourism, cultural assets, and public events.
Austin, TX
ACC-Highland Mall Campus TOD – retrofitting older mall next to rail stop. Community college major anchor. Non-profit concentration. TAMU Bioscience incubator. Long-term, filling in the parking lot with a mixed-use walkable development but many phases. Precipitated the Leander campus model.
Increase Commercial Activity
Marketing Destination Districts
Action:
Within their Comprehensive Plan 2021, the City sets the framework to enhance local vitality, stability and sustainability for places of distinction. The plan strives to identify, create, conserve, and connect those areas that make College Station unique and contribute to the City’s character and sense of place.
Created By:
City, County
Implement In:
City, County
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Programs
Action:
Support local businesses and entrepreneurial ventures in walkable corridors through targeted temporary or permanent initiatives in retail, food & beverage, entertainment or boutique manufacturing. Ensure ordinances and permits related to bathrooms, waste disposal, frontage, signage, food waste disposal, and parking requirements allow for micro businesses, multi-tenant spaces, food trucks/commissary or pop-up concepts. As codes change with our understanding of health and safety concerns, support building owners their ability to access capital investment necessary to keep businesses in compliance.
Created By:
City, County, Economic Development Organizations
Implement In:
City, County, Districts
Examples:
Buffalo, NY (Pop-up Program)
Richardson, TX
Texas City, TX
Resources:
TCEQ Food Truck Compliance Resources
Texas Department of Health and Human Services
The Ultimate Guide to Pop-up Shops
Pedestrian-Only Facilities or Infrastructure
Action:
Increase commercial activity by incorporating design elements that allow for temporary conversions of existing right-of-way for pedestrian-only use or public events including: surface-mounted bollards, enhanced lighting, provision of free WIFI, and power outlets for special vendors like food trucks.
Include programming in partnership with local shops, non-profit organizations, artists and musicians. Modified parking arrangements during such activities can help gauge public sentiment and the feasibility of more permanent solutions.
These tools have also been leveraged for economic recovery and resilience efforts for small businesses and retail corridors during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Created By:
City, County
Implement In:
City, Districts
Examples:
Houston, TX (East End Management District)
Houston, TX (Main Street)
Houston, TX (Westchase)
Norfolk, VA
San Diego, CA
Resources:
Design and Planning: Bicycle and Pedestrian Program
Open Streets Guide
Activate the Ground Floor
Action:
Reduce vacancy or underutilization of land and buildings to create a more cohesive, continuously active environment for customers, residents and workers.
Support entrepreneurial ventures or increase demand for a space by encouraging owners to invest in the property to speed re-tenanting process. Active ground floors requirements can be permanent of conditional.
Created By:
City, County, Economic Development Organizations
Implement In:
City, County, Districts
Aesthetic Enhancements & Blight Reduction
Action:
Enhance the community’s “welcome mat” through litter removal, enforcing illegal dumping laws, reducing blight of unkempt buildings or graffiti. Wrap or fill empty or inactive facades, walls and windows.
Created By:
City, County, Special District
Implement In:
City, County, Special District
Wayfinding & Signage Programs
Action:
Steer vehicles and pedestrians to key destinations through a directional wayfinding and signage system. This design of signage is also an opportunity to highlight the community’s brand or historical or cultural identity.
Created By:
City, County, Districts
Implement In:
City, County, Districts
Enhance Quality of Place
Implement Public Infrastructure Design Standards
Action:
Demonstrate public commitment to investing in place through development of design standards for all publicly owned and managed right-of-way, infrastructure, sites and spaces.
Created By:
City, County
Implement In:
City, County
Promote Public Art & Culture
Action:
Promote and amplify the community’s creative endeavors through public art initiatives. Work with local artists to enhance private or civic assets on vacant walls or underutilized public infrastructure through small grants and specialized permits.
Public art enhances community appeal, promotes civic pride and can increase awareness of businesses, business districts or interesting public spaces which increases traffic counts and opportunities for capturing.
Created By:
City, County
Implement In:
City, County
Establish a Destination Festival or Event
Action:
Develop local brand identity and cultivate regional or national awareness through formation or expansion of destination events linked to cultural or historical community roots.
Designing events that coordinate parking shuttles, and plan for foot traffic in ways that allow activities to not compete with area shops or restaurants are ideal for keeping events within a downtown or commercial corridor context.
Created By:
City, District
Implement In:
City, County
Leverage Historic Assets
Action:
Protect landmarks, buildings and aesthetic features of historical importance and significance to promote economic, cultural, educational and overall welfare of the community. Historical assets are important reminders of area identity, place in time, and the events that shaped and continue to shape each generation.
Created By:
City, County
Implement In:
City, County
Site Development Regulations
Landscaping or Natural Elements Requirements
Action:
Include natural elements (landscaping, trees, green buffers, etc) as part of the site improvements required for receipt of development permits.
Natural elements can reduce flooding, make for a more pleasant pedestrian experience, increase property values, improve area water quality, and improve public safety by reducing the heat island effect of asphalt or concrete and other impervious surfaces.
Created By:
City, County
Implement In:
City, County
Building Line/Lot Line Modifications
Action:
Eliminate minimum lot sizes or lot line setbacks to allow for a range of building types to flourish in a commercial district.
Created By:
City, County
Implement In:
City, County
Reduce or Eliminate Parking Requirements
Action:
Grant parking exemptions and increase flexibility in adaptive reuse of existing structures by eliminating the need to demolish a structure to create a parking lot. Access to transit and community preference should be considered.
Created By:
City, County
Implement In:
City, County
Determine Boundary-Specific Regulation
Mixed-Use Zones
Action:
Refine land use development and associated developer expectation with zones, or boundaries which indicate a standard set of land use regulation practices for a certain area. Zoning regulates density and parking requirements, allotted and/or prohibited land uses, locations of buildings or parking relative to site boundaries or streets, facade requirements, or vertical mixed-use requirements as often seen in downtown business districts or revitalization districts. Mixed-use zoning allows for a mix of residential, commercial, and/or industrial uses in a single district. Mixed-use zones contribute to greater livability and a healthier local economy.
Created By:
City, County
Implement In:
City, County
Examples:
Pearland, TX
Fulshear, TX
Texas City, TX
Resources:
Sustainable Development Code
US Environmental Protection Agency
Form-Based Development Codes
Action:
Create a set of development types at the city block level that are always approved as-of-right based on desired density of activity and connectivity. Use the urban-to-rural spectrum of land development as a model to define all the allowed uses, building types, parking, and compactness of a space based on different types of human scale habitats.
Created By:
City, County
Implement In:
City, County
Permitting Live-Work
Action:
Allow owners the ability to convert square footage to productive or commercial uses within residential zones and structures. Live/work ordinances allow modest, low-impact business or commercial uses within a residence in a residential zone. Alternatively, they might allow some residential uses within commercial or industrial buildings and zones.
Disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic will likely send small business owners looking for less expensive commercial space located closer to worker’s homes. Allowing accessory commercial units offer flexibility that could help local businesses survive and retool their operations. [1, 2]
Created By:
City, County
Implement In:
City, County
Accommodating Light Industrial or Artisanal Manufacturing
Action:
Ensure downtown districts are accommodating to artisan or craft light industrial manufacturing and production types to add to the breadth and depth of small business types and to diversify the commercial tax base. Artisan manufacturers tend to produce and sell goods directly onsite in a manner that does not cause noise, vibration, fumes or other nuisances that might conflict with other residential, public or commercial uses and activities. Examples of artisanal manufacturing include: baking, coffee roasting, brewing, candle making, screen printing, glass blowing, decorative metal work, 3D printing and others.
Created By:
Developer, Non-Profit
Implement In:
City, County