A plan to reshape downtown Fort Dodge was endorsed Thursday by a panel that represents dozens of property owners who pay extra taxes to finance improvements in the city's center.
The Self Supported Municipal Improvement District board of directors voted to support the plan drafted by Camiros, a consulting firm from Chicago, Ill.
The centerpiece of that plan is a new central park that would cover several blocks of what is now Second Avenue South between Fourth and Seventh streets. It would also reroute traffic from Second Avenue South onto First Avenue South. The plan calls for making First Avenue South a two-way street downtown.
The plan would propel more traffic toward Central Avenue and reduce the size of downtown, according to Dennis Plautz, the city's director of business affairs and community growth.
District leaders see that plan as a path to new growth downtown.
Board member Jim Bird said the measure passed Thursday announces the group's support for the plan and urges the City Council to move ''sooner rather than later'' to implement it.
Bird said the Camiros proposal marks the first time since 1981 that a comprehensive plan for downtown has existed.
He added that downtown is a ''part of the city that should always show well.''
The Camiros plan was unveiled in January. The final version of it was accepted by the City Council last month. The council has taken no other action on it.
In addition to the central park, the plan calls for:
- Additional housing between the City Square and the Des Moines River;
- Turning the intersection of Central Avenue and 12th Street into a roundabout;
- Converting First Avenue North to two-way traffic;
- Writing new zoning laws and building design standards for downtown.
The $90,000 study was paid for by the city government, the Self Supported Municipal Improvement District and the Development Corporation of Greater Fort Dodge.
The district is a roughly 33-block downtown area in which land owners pay an additional property tax to finance improvements there. The development corporation is a private, nonprofit entity dedicated to improving downtown.
The consultants started their work in August 2007.
Contact Bill Shea at (515) 573-2141 or bshea@messengernews.net