Duluth Rolls Out Downtown Master Plan

Updated 8:48 a.m.

Downtown Duluth, long a redevelopment target with city officials, now has a blueprint.

The Master Plan for Downtown Duluth, still technically in draft form, is now posted on the city website. And City Council members are scheduled to receive a formal presentation Thursday (Nov. 21) at a work session with the city's Downtown Development Authority.

And what does it call for? Check excerpts from the introduction:

"Walkable urbanism is not new, it is a return to the way towns and cities functioned for thousands of years, but it is the new force of real estate development, and wise cities are promoting this development pattern as the springboard of their future economic and cultural health."

And ...

"The cities that will flourish in the future are those that dominate a trade area for shopping, dining, jobs, housing, medical care, education and the arts. Trade areas will not respect municipal borders."

And ...

"The plans and recommendations in this report were crafted based on a series of 20 meetings over the course of 5 months, with consultants, planners and city leadership to establish the vision of a revitalized downtown Duluth ..."

Already, this direction can be seen in the establishment of such downtown businesses as Pure Taqueria and Best of Brews.
The document also notes: "The study area encompasses 36 acres of land in downtown Duluth, Georgia. The boundary ... includes the area from the railroad northwest to properties along the north side of Hill Street, and from Brock Road to the edge of the single family subdivisions west of downtown."

The full report is 100-plus pages (including several pages that were intentionally left blank). It contains sections such as land use and concept planning, transportation, and urban design and landscape.

A link is on the city website.

Note: This article was updated to note that some pages in the master plan report were intentionally left blank.

-- What do you think of the master plan for downtown Duluth? Tell us in the comments below.

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