Developer Addresses Downtown Standards

Goal is to make area friendlier to pedestrians
By Peter Ciancone
Tribune-Star
Date: June 13, 2002

Downtown Terre Haute Inc.'s meeting to discuss design standards began with a slide show that Ben Orman, a downtown developer, called "the good, the bad and the ugly."

The slide showed images of attractive downtown buildings, along with some ugly sections of what was once downtown. Ground-level parking and vacant store fronts dominated the show.

It also showed some possibilities for new construction taken from other cities, including several from Bloomington, to replace what Orman called downtown's "missing teeth" -- empty spaces between buildings.

A proposed set of design standards would try to bring back that pedestrian-friendly downtown feel, Orman said.

The Terre Haute City Council will table an ordinance containing the standards for more public input at meetings such as the one conducted Wednesday night in Market Bella Rosa at 669 Wabash Ave.

After the presentation, questions brought up historic preservation, what kinds of business development would be accepted and what the standards would do to attract new business.

The ordinance would redefine the downtown area as bordered by Cherry and Poplar streets north and south, and the Wabash River and the railroad tracks along 10th Street west and east. It would create a new zoning area designed to be a pedestrian core area that would emphasize arts and cultural heritage and shopping and pedestrian amenities.

That pedestrian core area includes all properties along Wabash Avenue and an area bounded by Cherry, Third and Ninth streets, plus Seventh Street between Cherry and Poplar streets.

The ordinance would create design standards for the two areas, with more rigorous ones in the pedestrian core area to make it friendlier for walking customers.

Design standards within the pedestrian area include bringing all new construction closer to the sidewalk to avoid what Orman called "car bumpers on the sidewalk." The standards also would mandate that windows dominate the ground-floor frontage of buildings and that parking be placed behind new structures. Within the pedestrian area, new buildings would have to be more than one-story tall.

Orman said the existence of that pedestrian corridor was vital to downtown.

"The connection between Farrington Grove and our downtown is very important and very fragile," he said.

Todd Nation, president of Downtown Terre Haute Inc., said the revitalization of downtown would have to include pedestrian links to existing residential neighborhoods as well as efforts to bring more residents into downtown properties. Links to Indiana State University students and staff also were a part of the work.

Nation said all existing structures and conditions would be allowed to remain if the standards passed, but any changes in existing properties would face the new standards.

Several questions were raised about protecting historic structures in the downtown area, an effort Nation said would have to be faced in another way.

"That would be a different ordinance than what we're considering today," he said.

Regarding what businesses would be accepted, and how the standards would attract businesses, Nation said, "This [proposed set of standards] is one of the many things that our community needs to do to steer new development downtown," adding, "You can't legislate business investment."

He added that the idea was to try to attract new business, not to drive them away.

Orman said the standards would assure businesses looking for atmosphere would see a demonstration of the community's effort to sculpt a new look downtown, something different from suburban designs prevalent in other sections of town.

Members of Downtown Terre Haute Inc. will meet with other members of the Greater Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce and city officials in meetings on the next two Tuesdays to discuss what changes may need to be made to the proposal. Members of the City Council have announced their intention to table the ordinance until their July meetings so further talks can take place.