Did anyone post this? I did not see it when I was skimming...
Planners propose ideas for downtown
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
By JILLIAN KRAMER and KATHY JUMPER Staff Reporters
It seems Mobilians are demanding a Whole Foods store.
After more than 100 residents, business owners, workers and councilmen met Tuesday evening with city-hired urban planners to discuss the future of downtown Mobile, it was clear they were convinced the area could be home to the organic food giant.
"If nothing else, we expect you to get us a Whole Foods," Carol Hunter, the Downtown Mobile Alliance communications director, said to the crowd and planners, who yelled and whistled wildly
in response.
Led by EDSA associate principal urban planner Keith Weaver, the meeting at the Alabama School of Math and Science focused on initial plans to transform 9.9 square miles of Mobile into a more livable, workable area.
Share the waterfront with the Alabama state docks; create a downtown office district on Water Street; turn the old Hickory Street Landfill into a sports academy and park; revamp the Mobile Civic Center into a mixed-use entertainment complex; relocate the overpass leading to the Interstate 10 Wallace Tunnel; and place a Whole Foods store at the corner of Spring Hill Avenue and Broad Street. These are some of ideas the urban planners, from Baltimore, Md., are suggesting — and residents are thinking over.
Residents at the meeting expressed excitement over renovations to the civic center, and making the waterfront more accessible and roadways more bicycle-friendly. But they're also concerned that development along Water Street and its waterways could disrupt the city's industrial growth and that any changes to the civic center would interfere with Mardi Gras celebrations.
Their ideas and concerns were addressed Tuesday.The planners also held public meetings in March and they expect to return in October, according to Weaver. Their work will cost the city about $400,000, officials have said.
Dubbed "A New Plan for Old Mobile" the revision of the city's 12-year-old master plan covers an area bordered on the east by the Mobile River, the south by Interstate 10 and Duval Street, the west by Houston Street and the north by Three Mile Creek and the neighborhoods north of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.
"After the March meetings, we researched and documented the trends. Now we're saying, 'Here's what we think you can do,'" said Russell Archambault of RKG Associates in Alexandria, Va., who is looking at economic issues in the plan.
An emphasis, according to the planners, is taking advantage of the city's water view.
"You are a water city with no access to the water," Archambault said. "The uses along there create a barrier to the water."
"It doesn't have to be an either-or situation — either have the riverfront as an entertainment area or as the docks," said Jesse Wiles, president of APD in Atlanta, a consultant handling housing and historic issues. But, he added, "The potential for growth downtown and tourism is hampered" by lack of waterfront access.
One idea is to develop what they called Dauphin Landing at the end of Dauphin Street, an area now occupied by the state docks. Planners envision an expansion of the Arthur Outlaw Convention Center, a waterfront hotel and mixed-use commercial area.
Archambault said planners understand the importance of the docks to the economy and the jobs it creates.
"We just want to get closer to the waterfront," he said.
The new master plan will offer urban design, historic, housing and economic goals for the targeted area, which was divided into three zones — zone 1, the downtown core and waterfront area; zone 2, Midtown North neighborhoods; and zone 3, Midtown South neighborhoods.
Deteriorating and neglected houses in zones 2 and 3 need to be renovated to reflect the area's history and culture, according to Wiles. "One thing that makes Mobile most attractive is the approach it takes to restoring its existing housing stock," he said.
The master plan would attempt to steer commercial businesses off Government Street to areas such as the intersection of Broad Street and Spring Hill Avenue and the downtown core. It suggests an office building district along Water Street.
The plan does not envision the city footing the bill. For example, any plan to redo the Civic Center would depend on how much money a developer brings to the table, Weaver said.
"It will not be the public sector that develops the area, but the private sector," Wiles said.
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An attraction like this is better left to being developed just outside of the city, maybe near the new race track complex or in west Mobile. 
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