Franklin Candidate Forum notes: part 3

I've got six pages of notes on the mayoral candidates forum, but I'm going to toss those and focus on the specific issue that jumped out at me that is both appropriate to the theme of this blog and an area where Franklin is hurting.

To wit:

Mayor Tom Taylor has on different occasions expressed his idea of where Franklin's downtown is or will be located. Sometimes it's Fountains of Franklin; other times it's Shoppes at Wyndham Village.

On the night of the forum, it was 76th and Rawson, of all places (aka the intersection of Ugly and Bleak). He then identified a separate civic center for Franklin roughly radiating outward from the library and eventually connected by walkways.

ABOVE: 76th and Rawson - downtown Franklin?

I cannot disagree more with that non-unified, scattered, "pod" vision of community life - the very definition of "hither and yon."

When did we get it in our heads that we can (or should) separate civic and commercial amenities? I'm mystified by that notion. The very reason that vibrant community centers  - and the cities within which they thrive - become so popular and lucrative is the fact that useful and desired facilities are within walking distance of each other. Take the kids to the park, then walk over to the coffee shop. Drop off dry cleaning after story-time at the library. Grab a sandwich before mailing a package at the post office.

In the meantime, meaningful interaction occurs again and again, and money changes hands between citizens and merchants again and again.

Did it not occur to anyone leaving the library on the night of the forum that you were, once you hit the parking lot, effectively nowhere? No nearby coffee shop, deli, bar, or restaurant to which to adjourn; everyone to their cars and back to their pods.

Challenger Basil Ryan impressed me with his alternative vision: Let's utilize the investments and infrastructure already in place (and already paid for) - -   beautiful library, a palace-like "Law Enforcement Center," city hall, and park - - and make that Franklin's nominal downtown and civic center by using the city-owned land between facilities in a more efficient manner.

He said:

We need the vision to do it here, right in our backyard, with the land that’s available here. We can tie in the police department, city hall, the library. We DO have enough space. We need someone with a creative vision, work with the existing buildings, and if we do that I think that would be your downtown. The land is there and we can encompass the buildings we’ve already paid for - - the city owns that land in between.

This was something I suggested in this blog last year using the photo below. The areas in green have potential.

And, as I noted a few days back: how sad is it that locally-owned Moondance Coffee goes out of business in a crummy 27th street location when we have no coffee shop in walking distance of the well-used library? The simple injection of two or three commercial amenity-type businesses in the area around Legend park and the library will create a much-needed civic AND commercial center that will pull together the eventual Shoppes at Wyndham Village and Legend Creek commercial developments as well. That's how you create a vibrant, tax-base expanding community focal-point. Add a literal Civic Center building (or the Franklin Cultural Arts Center), and now you have a real town center.

Hear the cash registers?

At the same time, why not use that opportunity to give locally-owned businesses first dibs by offering subsidies and incentives to them for a change? Moondance Coffee should be right where the enormous (and useless) front lawn of the library is currently, a public courtyard between. With a coffee shop nearby, I defy you to visit the library without stopping for java and/or a bagel while there.

Money changing hands!

Mayor Taylor said at the forum: "Business will go where business will do well." Drive by the library parking lot on any weekday - it's always nearly full - and do the math.

Ryan further impressed me by shifting focus away from 27th Street and calling our attention to the area around the House of Corrections. We can either develop it ourselves or wait for the County to place an undesirable - and non-lucrative -  facility or facilities there. What he didn't mention is that we will actually increase security for the area by making it inhabited and trafficked; hard to sneak off the jail property and melt into the surroundings when the surroundings contain alert humanity and lit streets.

We are a city without a center, and to further "decentralize" Franklin with talk of separate "civic" and "commercial" areas will merely reinforce Franklin's identity as a loose collection of subdivisions and strip malls with no vibrant community focal point.

And guess what? Tech companies don't want to move their employees to a "placeless place," no matter what kind of TIF you wave in front of them. On the other hand, TIF or not, progressive companies are hot for progressive communities; they and their money sniff out places like Middleton Hills and, if they follow up on certain plans, Oak Creek.

What does this mean for the mayor's race?

At the forum, Mayor Taylor claimed "in recent days and months we are being literally inundated with requests to build commercial development in the Franklin School District." If that's so, we need a person in the lead who is able to convey in no uncertain terms Franklin's vision and identity along the lines I laid out above. If we present an unambiguous set of standards and a confident plan, developers will be glad to work within Franklin's vision and indeed contribute to the process rather than rail against it.

Which candidate will strengthen the city Plan Staff (whose mandate is smart, effective, forward-thinking growth) and take it out from under Economic Development (whose mandate is just "growth" at all costs)?

Which candidate can look a big box in the eye and make them happy to become part of Franklin's plan, rather than the other way around?

Which candidate realizes that subdivisions need not be speedways, and that sidewalks and right-angle turns save kids' lives?

Which candidate recognizes the needs of the elderly and differently-abled to the extent that he will hold developers to a standard of walkability and accessibility in their site plans rather than mere sheds surrounded by parking lots?

Which candidate is willing to think creatively about mixed-used zoning and better, more cost-effective use of current infrastructure rather than more single-use pods and expensive sprawl?

If the southwest portion of Franklin is to be developed, which candidate is ready and willing to meet with a developer with ambitious plans for a Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) plan, and effectively communicate that plan and its strengths to nearby residents so they understand its value to them as taxpayers and community members?

Which candidate sees the value of leveraging all of the above to create a strong, vibrant, desirable community identity that will attract more business and expand the tax base without the need for subsidies and TIF's?

I'll vote for, and then work with, that guy.

Comments

[Terrence Berres]

"When did we get it in our heads that we can (or should) separate civic and commercial amenities?"

I'm assuming you have a copy of 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities' (1961) by Jane Jacobs about. Just reread the Introduction in which she digs through the layers of planning orthodoxies laid down to that point.

[John Michlig]

Correct, Terrence. Many passages from Jacobs' book are cited in the newly emerging literature on suburbanization.

It's single-purpose ("pod") zoning carried to a destructive extreme.

[Josh Strupp]

"At the forum, Mayor Taylor claimed 'in recent days and months we are being literally inundated with requests to build commercial development in the Franklin School District.'"

I find this extremely difficult to believe that statement considering the state of affairs over at Fountains of Franklin. You are telling me that hundreds of commercial developers are knocking on Mayor Taylor's door when FOF can't seem to get anything better than a Dairy Queen to locate there?

Furthermore, if Franklin is such a hotbed for commercial development, how come we haven't seen just 1 of these developers take John's advice and purpose (or even consider) a TND plan to date?

[John Michlig]

This "high interest" is also counter to the opinion some have that developers shy away from Franklin for fear of "over-regulation."

Developers - WORTHY developers - shy away from INDECISIVE municipalities. Make your vision clear and developers will become PARTNERS rather than the opposition.

[Greg Kowalski]

Well when a Mayor of a community doesn't even know what or where his community's downtown, or central, area should be, we got a problem.

[John Michlig]

I feel the situation is very possibly correctable with the election of one or more "fresh" alderpersons this time around.

[Bryan Maersch]

I am opting for the New City Hall being built as an annex to the new Super Wally-mart.

[Janet Evans]

Regarding Josh's comment...I personally sat down with Mayor Taylor and asked him directly why approval of development is so slow in Franklin. I know a developer, personally, who informed me of a few issues. Many developers are going elsewhere because they do not want to wait the length of time Franklin is making them wait for approvals. They can get things going in neighboring communities in just a couple months.

Mayor Taylor told me it's all about having solid ordinances in Franklin and also about quality.

I agree we want to have quality and follow ordinances. Who wouldn't? But the impression I walked away with from the meeting was that we have so many people who want to develop in Franklin...that we can take our sweet time.

Well, the developer I know, who talks with other developers, is turned off regarding Franklin....They can't wait and take their time...they want to make money. Who knows what we are losing? Maybe it's good, maybe it's bad...

I would like to know exactly what the Mayor is looking for...exactly...Eventually, we're going to lose something really good...

[John Michlig]

This whole "developers have moved on" idea is almost urban legend in Franklin. If another Dairy Queen moves on, who cares? The mayor is in no position to be naming names, but I'm sure he's gently "disencouraged" certain developments. At least I HOPE so.

My concern is that Franklin lacks the critical focus (and an enabled Plan Staff) that a VISIONARY developer seeks and needs in order to propose and create the sorts of projects that elevate a city.

[John Michlig]

To expand on the above: We need to make ourselves clear and get it right ON THE FRONT END rather than let an over-accommodating council rubber-stamp everything to a stage where needed changes are a big problem to the developer. THAT'S what's happening now because the Plan Staff is not allowed to do its job.

[Janet Evans]

Well, I can't argue with that, John.