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DowntownTelecommunicationsInfrastructureMarch UPDATE:Table of contents of Downtown Master Plan Charrette PDF files on City web site: ''February UPDATE: Here are a couple of summary reports from the charrette team, which were sent to us by the City Planning Department: a Work in Progress Exit Survey report and a schedule for future Master Plan activities. They look great, but there is no mention of telecommunications that we can find.' WatchMaster note: Incrediby and embarrassingly in our view, there's been little or no discussion of telecommunications or infrastructure needs within the current charrette or on the City's web site. Recognizing that the Master Plan is a work in progress, we ask: What does it say about our town that the single most important economic and technological force on the planet (and now enveloping it) simply hasn't shown up in discussion so far? This is doubly puzzling since the City is now launching its own separate Telecommunications Task Force to study these issues. TelecomWatch applauds the charrette process , which has been extremely professional to date, but telecommunications infrastructure assessments are surely as important to our community's future as are the local streets and other infrastructure components. We love our horse-and-buggy era Square, and especially the magic of its gardens and Farmer's Market, but we can't imagine it surviving in the so-called Knowledge and Information Society without more attention to our electronic infrastructure. Thankfully, our new Library will be a model for the City to emulate in its thinking. Telecommunications planning can still be built into this charrette or a similar process later, however. (see below) The government channel is showing the taped videos of the charrette sessions, however, and that schedule is available at the government channel's web page: http://www.accessfayetteville.org/utilities_and_cable_access/cable_administration/fayetteville_government_channel_program_schedule.html' ''Watch Master Take on Charrette and Feedback to City' Tim & team: Please accept this as my response (green sheet) that asked for at the Thursday Jan 15 presentation of the Master Plan work in progress. I felt that the charrette was superb – for the task and area that was assigned to the team for “Downtown”. The concepts for revitalizing the pre-selected area were creative and well presented. I’ve never seen a more professional job. My comments on the presentation (and overall process) are: 1. Top priority should go to the expanding the charrette scope into a well defined scheme that gives some idea of the City’s vision for the “step by step process” alluded to by the Mayor. It’s not clear why this particular segment of the community was chosen as “Downtown” and thus given initial top priority. Much more study should be made of what constitutes appropriate “mixed use”, affordable housing in Fayetteville. 2. The most obvious items missing from the future vision are: · a stronger rationale is needed for the map and boundaries chosen to represent the Downtown, with the chosen segment shown in context. Fortunately, the charrette team recognized many of the other influences impinging on the Downtown from the outlying development. Thus, a larger map reflecting the development data represented in the Team’s tables and charts might better have reflected the new “Downtown” that is mushrooming west and north, often repeating the mistakes pointed out in the “old” Downtown. (I cherish the “Old Downtown”, but the bigger, higher priority, more immediate needs are in the newly developing areas. In my view, many of the symptoms of decay “Downtown” stem from the unbridled development elsewhere in the community and county. · there has been no discussion of needs or plans for Fayetteville’s telecommunications infrastructure, currently nearly non-existent, which will be examined by a Task Force assigned this month by the City Council. Both the Task Force and the University should be brought into “Downtown” and community (and regional) conceptualization and later coordination. The “virtual” infrastructure will play a crucial role in Fayetteville’s future. 3. The “right track” for City planning, in the long term, depends on whether the more general community-wide “Master Plan” takes into account similar charrettes for other areas in town that suffer from similar symptoms – specifically southern Fayetteville and the sprawl developing on the fringes. Telecom Board member Cochran has suggested a Jackson Florida plan(http://www.coj.net/City+Council/Telecommunications+Master+Plan.htm ) as a model for discussion by out City. TelecomWatch has contacted the Consultant conducting the charrette to urge that they consider Downtown telecom infrastructure needs and what the influences might be for future Downtown and City-wide development. See following note to Tim Conklin. (The City is still taking comments from citizens regarding the charrettes. You can contact tconklin@ci.fayetteville.ar.us and cmcdade@ci.fayetteville.ar.us. Tim heads the City's planning and engineering staff. Courtney handles a lot of the community and neighborhood relations work.) January 5, 2004 Tim: You and your staff are doing a super job of announcing the charrettes. I’m planning to attend and hope to do some video work at CAT and my local web site as follow-up for some of the sessions. As you know, I’ll be particularly interested in how the telecommunications infrastructure will be addressed, I'll be covering some of that portion for the local web site. (The Telecom Board has a couple of meetings this month related to designing and planning the new "Technology and Telecommunications Infrastructure Task Force", so a presentation by the you and the consultants might be useful for them also, The Board is also considering putting some questions into a survey now being put together by Cox Cable, so there might be a way to fit those Board questions into the overall information-gathering process.) As one of the community who may not be able to attend all the meetings, I hope that your office will be using the electronic media to cover the ongoing meetings and include citizens’ input in an equally effective process. I believe that you could get a lot of extra public awareness mileage by including strong week-by-week coverage via the local TV access stations and the City’s web site. I understand that the government channel will be covering the charrettes, and those segments could be cablecast at specific times -- at your request -- in the following weeks. It would be fairly easy to develop community feedback from those shows also. As you know, the City web site already carries the Master Plan, and I believe it would be helpful to most of us to know how that plan and the Consultants planning is being keyed to the current maps, plans, and other studies that have been done recently. I’m sure that it would be relatively easy for the consultants to present some of their weekly progress reports on the website also. John and his GIS people do a tremendous job in that kind of work, and I’m sure the consultants will have their reports in digital format, so it should be relatively easy to track the summary reports and citizens’ input session on the web. Several of the local web sites will be interested in the telecommunications and environmental aspects, and it seems likely that they (and I) will be asking for information in digital format. (If the City goes forward with a Citizen's Survey of City government services for 2004, those survey findings might also be tied to the charrette findings.) I fully support your charrette and design process, and am happy to see this new planning approach underway. My only somewhat selfish reservation is that it doesn’t cover some of the over-heated development in some sections of Ward 4. Maybe your consultants could visit a Ward meeting or two to get some first hand commentary on local needs from a Ward viewpoint, and maybe we can be next in the City's planning. Best regards and a prosperous New Year, nputjim@earthlink.net > [Original Message] > From: Tim Conklin <tconklin@ci.fayetteville.ar.us> > To: FFF-LIST <xxxxx@xxxxx.com> > Date: 1/1/2004 7:43:28 PM > Subject: Public Charrette > > > You're Invited > Public Charrette > > our vision | our future > dover kohl and partners, consultant > FAYETTEVILLE DOWNTOWN MASTER PLAN >(snip) > > > For more information, please contact Courtney McDade? at 575-8253 or email at > cmcdade@ci.fayetteville.ar.us You can find additional information at > www.accessfayetteville.org > > > Tim Conklin, AICP > Director of Community, Planning & Engineering Services > City of Fayetteville > 113 West Mountain Street > Fayetteville, AR 72701 > > Phone: 479-575-8267 > Fax: 479-575-8202 > > planning@ci.fayetteville.ar.us]''' |