Downtown Scottsdale Plan Update
Charlier Associates and its team partners, led by Kevin Gardiner & Associates, assisted the City of Scottsdale Advance Planning and Policy Department in updating the 1984 Downtown Plan. The Downtown Plan and subsequent community efforts have been successful at guiding growth, both financially and physically, of Downtown Scottsdale. Since 1984, Downtown has seen public and private investment totaling $2 billion, including the addition of 2,489 residential units. Today, this ongoing investment places Downtown in on the cusp of becoming a true 24-hour downtown, thus realizing the Downtown Plan’s main goal that Downtown Scottsdale become a “highly functional mixed-use center” that provides a “creative environment in which people live, work and pursue leisure activities.”
Through an extensive public process, the community provided direction for how and where future investments should be made to further evolve Downtown Scottsdale into a unique market and community within the Phoenix metropolitan area and nationally. A key element in this process was updating the downtown Circulation and Mobility Element in conjunction with the city’s Transportation Master Plan. Key mobility policies for Downtown Scottsdale emerging as part of the update process included:
- Overall: Downtown Scottsdale shall be a destination for people, not merely a place for traffic to pass through.
- Automobile: The Downtown street system shall balance mobility needs for travel, circulation and access.
- Bicycle: Bicycle travel into and through Downtown shall be encouraged to add to Downtown’s vitality and enhance personal mobility options.
- Parking: Quantities and locations of parking shall be an integral component of overall Downtown development.
- Public Transportation: Transit shall be encouraged to enhance Downtown circulation and connect Downtown Scottsdale to the larger community.
- Pedestrian: Downtown Scottsdale shall strive to be an overall Pedestrian Supportive district, with embedded Pedestrian Places.
The Mobility Element is one of eight elements comprising the 2008 Downtown Plan Update. Other aspects addressed by the update include community involvement, history, land use, urban design, sustainability, arts and culture, and economic vitality. The planning process began in July 2007 and the final plan was adopted in July, 2009. Consultant team members include Kevin Gardiner & Associates, RBF, Bay Area Economics, and A. Dye Design.
Visit the project page on the Scottsdale, AZ Website.