Published: August 28, 2009 09:06 pm      

Downtown dreams

EDMOND — The Edmond City Council approved this past week an important first step in creating a future for Edmond’s downtown. It created a task force that will be asked to envision what might be next for the heart of this city. This task force, created under the auspices of the Central Edmond Urban Development Board, will focus on updating a downtown masterplan last worked on in 1998.

Many of those projects have come to fruition in the past 13 years, such as the streetscape project, the creation of the Festival Market Place and the creation of the Downtown Development Guidelines that outlines a set of rules for upgrades to existing buildings in the area.

But it’s past time to take another hard look at what is needed now to help our downtown remain viable and healthy.

Part of the Council discussion focused on including the University of Central Oklahoma more in the downtown plans as it borders the downtown area and is an integral part of this portion of the city. While it’s absolutely vital to include them, there still remain some goals from the 1998 plan left undone to better connect the university to the downtown. We hope this next round of planning will place higher emphasis on accomplishing that goal.

The proposed Public Safety Center to replace the Edmond Police Department building on Littler will be a key factor within whatever the task force recommends. Whether the project is built in the heart of downtown or whether it’s built at Main and Kelly and the current downtown location is reutilized will have a major impact on the downtown’s future. This board continues to be a strong advocate of pursuing this project, especially with the hope that it will open an opportunity to create more parking in the core downtown.

The one area that is truly evolving isn’t in the heart of downtown, but is located within what’s called the Central Business District at the edge of downtown. Mark Neighbors, owner of Parkway Cleaners and Menswear, has changed not only the face, but also the scope of what’s possible with his developments along Fifth Street. His structures in conjunction with the UCO Jazz Lab are prime examples of what will take the downtown into the future.

We applaud Neighbors’ efforts to bring an exciting mix of retail, quality dining and night life to this area. We believe he’s on the right track and hope that other developers realize the potential for more dining and entertainment in this area of Edmond. Those two components will change the face of downtown and bring it the success the city needs.

With the thought of more dining and entertainment needs in the area, the task force also will have to consider what further investment should be made by the city to enable the sort of synergy downtown and its patrons will need to change. In our current economic climate it’s tough to advocate any big expenditures on taxpayer dollars, but we do encourage the task force to think big for our downtown. Economic climates can change and we hope the city is ready to invest in a dramatic improvement when the time is right.