Meriden City Center, Connecticut - a Comprehensive Plan for Revitalization
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Case Background
For several years, a group of organizations and individuals in and around Meriden, Connecticut worked toward revitalizing and redeveloping its downtown, in a project called ‘the Meriden City Center Initiative - a Comprehensive Plan for Revitalization.’ This group included economic development interests, several local politicians, and a range of other interested parties, and is being coordinated by an entity called the Meriden Economic Resources Group (MERG).
During the first phase of this project, the project team identified obstacles to downtown redevelopment and laid out some initial thoughts on a vision for the future. The four main obstacles to downtown development were identified as sense of place, flood control, transportation barriers, and economic development. In a desire to investigate these four obstacles further, MERG was awarded a grant from the state to develop this second phase of the Meriden City Center Initiative, including doing additional studies and analysis, and organizing a public involvement process. MERG hired CBI in September 2004 to undertake an assessment of public opinion and concerns around public involvement and the process, and to develop a public involvement plan.
CBI Approach
With help from the Greater Meriden Chamber of Commerce, CBI staff members interviewed 43 people from different City constituencies, including local businesses, local government, state government, public housing officials, clergy, black and Latino leaders, community activists, local media, families, social service agencies, arts advocates, local employers, and others with specific or general interest in the redevelopment of downtown. The results of these interviews were written up in the Meriden City Center Initiative Phase II Planning Community Engagement Assessment Report. This report highlighted the overlap among a range of constituencies, with great excitement around future development. Those interviewed were also generally enthusiastic about the creation of public space, transportation improvements, downtown amenities, functional open space, and the idea of a downtown that meets the diverse needs of the population. They liked the idea of broad public involvement in the program that will shape phase two of the process.
The core recommendation in the Assessment Report was that an Advisory Group be formed around the four main topics of phase two of the Meriden City Center Initiative. The report identified 20 stakeholder groups within the Meriden community that should be represented on the Advisory Group to ensure that a broad range of viewpoints be heard and shared, and stressed that the meetings of the group should be open to the public, with broad outreach and advertising.
Outcomes
The first meeting of the City Center Advisory Group (CCAG), facilitated by CBI Senior Associate Stacie Nicole Smith, was held in December 2004. The agenda included an opening by the Mayor of Meriden, discussion of ground rules, roles, responsibilities, the composition of the Advisory Group, and a presentation by MERG and BL Companies (the technical consultants for phase two) about the history of the project and the agenda and timetable for future topics. The CCAG process included 22-24 members (some members joined during the process), representing 19 stakeholder groups from the community. Together, they helped the planning team to shape a long-term, viable, exciting vision and implementable plan for downtown Meriden.
The first meeting was designed to set the tone and define the process for the CCAG. During the meeting, participants seemed enthusiastic about participating and asked for additional time before the next meeting in order to expand outreach with their constituents. Four additional, substantive meetings were scheduled between January and the end of March 2005. The topics for discussion for the CCAG included the main components of the Phase II planning process, and integrated the topics identified during the assessment as issues of concern. These included:
- Creating a Sense of Place
- Market Factors and Attracting Private Investment
- Flood Control
- Transportation, Traffic, and Phasing
At each of these three-hour meetings, expert presenters offered data and information about the main topics of discussion, followed by question-and-answer and then discussion with the CCAG members. The facilitator sought to capture themes and concerns. Each meeting concluded with time for public comment. To maximize citizen input and engagement, all meetings were recorded on video and played repeatedly over Meriden public assess television. In addition, presentations from and summaries of all meetings were given to CCAG members to reproduce for constituents, and were also posted on the MCCI web site.
The CCAG members offered a number of detailed comments on each of the topics for discussion, and identified several themes that should guide the redevelopment process. The outcome of phase two, including the public process and other work by BL Companies and MERG, is a report to the City of Meriden that lays out a proposal for dealing with the four obstacles identified in phase one and discussed during the CCAG meetings. All the CCAG and public comments were noted by the facilitator and the planning team, and recommendations were integrated into the phase two report, with an effort to generate public support to implement Central City redevelopment in a structured and coherent way over time. The final Phase II Report was presented to the City of Meriden on April 27, 2005.
For more information on this case, please contact Senior Associate Stacie Nicole Smith.
