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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-05-08 Downtown Beautification Improvement Ad Hoc Committee Minutes Attachment 2Callie Walkway was a gift to the business community: It had a voice on the paver color. The public deserves a voice in creating an equally beautiful Plaza. If $40k can be designated for a comparatively minor project like the fountain in front of the Chamber, at least an equal amount of funds should be dedicated for repaving and greening the Plaza, whose present form is detested by the public. I've presented a plan, which has been reviewed and approved by Jim Oleson, to save approximately $15-20k on this fountain. That's an additional $15-20k more than the committee thought it had in the budget. These fund should go to replacing the pavers. Committee members are giving carte blanche to the OSF to spend $40,000, yet begrudging replacing the pavers which would cost less! Another $150k is proposed for new, and unnecessary, downtown lighting. Committee members: Where are your priorities? Those associated with the creation of the Plaza, like Mr. Dawkins, minimize the groundswell of dislike for the Plaza. It's 65% of those polled among the general population here in Ashland, not just 500 petitioners as Mr. Dawkins stated. The Plaza's form was created by sleight of hand, not public process: Plaza's Form Foisted On the Public: On Jun 21, 2012, with only Councilor and commission input, and perhaps one very brief questionnaire, the city presented CoveyPardee's "Plan B" (See image below) to the public at the first public access meeting. Public comments and questions were taken, but largely disregarded, and two other very similar plans were shown. A mere two weeks and four days later, on July 9th, with no further public input, Plan B below was again presented, unchanged, to the public at the second public access meeting and billed as the plan of "choice." Thus the public had but one day to give comment and no meaningful input in the final Plaza's floor plan and design. This was not a public process that seriously weighed public opinion, as Mr. Dawkins and the councilor majority have stated. It was instead, a closed committee process that largely disregarded and disdained public input. Mr. Dawkin's and Kerry KenCairn's comparison of this closed commission process a meaningful "public process" is stretching the boundaries of anyone's common sense. ""Plan B" as originally shown, was approved by the Council on July 16th, a mere 25 days from day one of the first public access meeting. See for yourselves: The "Plan B" shown below is the essentially the same form we see on the Plaza today, except for the gray pavers and lack of greenery. The switch in paver color, is another example of our steamroller local government at work. It was not shared with the public by those in the know. Many of these same people associated with the Plazaa creation are on the Downtown Beautification Committee. Committee members: Seek actual public design input before reaffirming the Plaza's form. Do not ratify the sham process that created the Plaza by unanimously rubber-stamping its form. Even modest adjustments in the form will yield much better flow and feeling to the Plaza. Adding improvements here and there will yield a hodgepodge effect. Mr. Kanner, Greg Lemhouse, Russ Silbiger, Mike Morris, Dennis Slattery, others with the city on the "Plaza team" must have learned of the gray pavers choice by the Nov. 2012 Plaza team meeting described by Mr. Kanner, if not sooner. Ann Seltzer and several commissioners knew on Sept. 26, 2012. Why did no one tell the public? Why were salmon color pavers continually shown to the public for months after they and the Plaza team knew the real color, right up to the day they were installed? All of these above individuals have been asked, but all have refused to state to the public the date they learned of the gray pavers. Why? The 'Public Process" has broken down. The Public rightfully feels it has been misled. It's a betrayal of the public's trust. Committee members, you have a great opportunity to restore the public's trust in our city government. By your conduct and decisions regarding the Plaza, and recommendations to the council, you can make a big difference in healing the damage done by our city government's past policies. Plaza '"Plan B,," first presented to the public on June 21., 2012,,: Dawkins'•, weeks ago: r Peoplereferring to'HistoricAshland v r Plaza has never been Here is a statement from the Covey Pardee website: http://www.coveypardee.com/work/municipal-institutional.html undertaking"The Plaza in Downtown Ashland, Oregon -Covey Pardee was the prime consultant for the design of the Plaza in Downtown Ashland. The plaza is an historic focal point of the community, located at the entrance to L,ithia Park, where the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the historic downtown converge. As such, the project garnered a great deal of attention, and CPLA's initial • conduct a public outreach process to explain .. project and gather task was to prepare a design that ♦ * the essence of the place, met the needs includeddiverse community, nd espect the rich ntext the ,y.yy ,+� historic y�.•' ' maylocation. and schematic design, and complete construction documents. Covey Pardee Work The Calle Walkway: The new Calle Walkway is a stunning example of the beautiful public works projects our city is capable of creating when teamwork and citizen input is actively engaged. The classic herringbone pattern of the bricks ties in beautifully with the downtown's historic architecture. And the playful curves of the walkway mirror the meandering creek. The walkway references both the past and the present. How this differs from the Plaza redesign, which references little of its historic environment, and embodies the values of a strip mall or a parking lot. Downtown Beautification Committee: Here is the inspiration and vision we have been seeking. I urge you to contact members of the Parks Calle Walkway team and consult with them for recommendations on restoring our Plaza. They will have recommendations for creating a Plaza redesign process that includes greater public input and contribution, as they did throughout the entire Calle walkway process. Re: Repaving Costs: Pete Cislo and I discussed repaving the Plaza at breakfast at Greenleaf several months ago. Pete said he had a contractor who could repave the Plaza for $33k. His estimates may have changed since then. At the time he did tell me repaving would present no significant disruption to downtown businesses. Other paver contractors have quoted me similar amounts to Pete's initial figure. Get additional quotes from paver contractors before you settle on the "'less than" $50k figure. It sounds too high. It's even —$15k higher than Mr. Kanner's lower estimate. The original pavers were done by Regenesis for about $42k. Resale value of old pavers will lower costs below Pete's $33k quote. Clarification is needed. The existing paves are a "sunk cost." If replacing them adds enough significant value to the Plaza, the initial pavers' cost is of no consequence. Sunk cost defined.- Source: Wikipedia: In econornics and business decision - making, a sunk cost is a retros ective (past) cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. in traditional rnicroeconornic theory., only prospective (future) costs are relevant to an investment decision. Traditional economics proposes that economic actors should not let sunk costs influence their decisions. Doing so would not be rationally assessing a decision exclusively on its own merits. Downtown Beautification Committee: Let go of poor past decisions regarding the gray pavers and embrace a better paver choice. It's the correct economic decision policy for our Plaza. From Facebook pages of: Preserve Ashland's Historic Plaza: Statement of an Oregon Statewide Inspector: An Oregon statewide inspector saw the documentary "A Voice for Preservation" (A documentary regarding new Ashland Plaza), and commented: "The documentary was very well put together and states the results clea rly... local concerns not listened to, and design vetting just a formality. I actually haven't been by there recently .... it did turn out quite ugly if I do say so myself. I don't think I've ever seen a final result wander so far from the target .... though I've seen quite a few "Improvements" end up being an eye -sore. I think Ashland's pride will force a re -think before long. 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The shape of the Plaza should be slightly altered to gave it more flow and feeling. It's not a shrine to an artist's work. Nor should it be. The Plaza is in service to the downtown historic district, the businesses and the public. We need a design team to help marry all the proposed design elements into a unified whole. We know we have the talent, the Calle Walkway design team has shown us the way. urge the committee to contact the Calle Walkway design team for suggestions on how to best bring the Plaza back to a state of wholeness, so that all its elements and planned elements support and flow with the Historic Downtown District in which it resides. Let's get the Parks Department involved in the Plaza redesign efforts.