Getting Back To Main Street: a revitalization Plan for Pennsburg
Download 0.56 Mb. Pdf ko'rish
|
- Bu sahifa navigatsiya:
- Recreational Opportunities Chapter 34
- Developing Existing Facilities
- Conclusion
- Economic Incentives Chapter 42 42
- Small Business Assistance
|
Conclusion Making physical improvements to a community is an important way to show both community members and visitors that a community is vital. Building on the improvements in Pennsburg’s 2001 revitalization plan will both keep the community moving forward as well as provide a sense of progress. Improvements in streetscape and gateways have created that sense of progress in Pennsburg, and continuing by adding way-finding signage and traffic calming will allow Pennsburg to con- tinue developing that sense. Bringing the community together to assist with the maintenance of the streetscape improvements, as well as to actually develop them into bigger community assets will increase com- munity involvement and give a sense of ownership to community members.
• Developing Existing Facilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 •
Recreational Opportunities Chapter 34 Chapter 4:: Recreational Opportunities
Improving recreational opportunities means creating new facilities and further developing existing facilities. In that vein, there are several rec- ommendations for improving the quantity and quality of Pennsburg’s recreational options over the next several years.
It should be noted that some of the recommendations herein may not be covered under the Montgomery County Revitalization Program, and therefore will not be eligible to receive funding from that program. Should outside funding beyond the Montgomery County Revitalization Program be necessary, potential funding sources have been included in chapter 7 of this plan.
Developing Existing Facilities
For a smaller town, Pennsburg has a few well used recreation facilities in Pennsburg Community Park and the Pennsburg Nature Preserve.
Currently Pennsburg Community Park is the active recreation site in the Borough. It contains a softball field, a concession stand, and a gravel parking lot which can accommodate roughly twenty to thirty cars, plus additional green space. Due to stormwater problems along Main Street, this green space is often wet and occasionally flooded. The acquisition of the old Green Lane Tool and Die Company build- ings for use as both open space and room to improve existing facilities will provide the impetus to expand and improve the park, and help mitigate some of the stormwater issues to make more of the park us- able.
that the best interests of the residents of Pennsburg are kept in mind during the park improvement process. The final product will be one that the community will not only be proud of but will make use of on a regular basis. 35 Getting Back To Main Street: A Revitalization Plan for Pennsburg
When planning for the park’s development, keeping a part of the park open and free from programmed activities such as ball fields and play- grounds, will serve to lessen the stormwater burden on the site as well as to maintain a sense of openness within the park. While there may be space for multiple fields on the property, creating as many fields into the small space as possible will place a stress on the land that may not be healthy.
Remaking the park via a master park plan will help improve the facility to meet Pennsburg’s changing needs. However, the park itself needs to be publicized so that residents will be aware of its presence. Attrac- tive and informative signage should be placed on Main Street alerting passers-by that there is a park mere blocks away. The more people know about the park, the more it will be used, and the bigger asset it will be to the community.
Further developing the Pennsburg Community Park property will also require an understanding of the needs of the community. The recrea- tional survey currently underway by the Upper Perkiomen Valley Re- gional Planning Commission could be a valuable tool with which to assess the recreational needs of the community. Utilizing information provided by this survey would be a low-cost way to inform any im- provements to the park and the new Tool and Die facility adjacent to it. For example, the survey results show that Upper Perkiomen Valley residents favor preserving more natural areas, such as Pennsburg Na- ture Preserve, and many residents of the Upper Perkiomen Valley are in favor of adding more trails of all types. Walking trails, like those proposed at Pennsburg Community Park, are especially popular.
The Pennsburg Nature Preserve is a passive recreation facility in the borough. Located off West 5 th Street, the Preserve is a five acre strip of land surrounding the Macoby Creek and contains parking as well as a walking path around the Creek.
The Preserve exists to lessen the impact of storm-water and surround- Fig. 4.1. The concession stand at Pennsburg Community Park. 36 Chapter 4:: Recreational Opportunities Fig. 4.2. A Conceptual Site Development Plan for Pennsburg Community Park (shown below) was adopted by Borough Council in May 2009. The plan details the various recreational amenities envisioned for the park. 37 Getting Back To Main Street: A Revitalization Plan for Pennsburg ing development on the creek through a restored streambed planted with local grasses, shrubs and over 100 trees. These plantings help stabilize the creek’s ecology by filtering pollution brought by storm- water before it enters the creek’s waters. The Preserve also features a grass meadow, butterfly garden, and a small asphalt parking lot that can hold five cars, including one disabled parking spot.
While the Preserve is a great facility environmentally, it could likely be improved in terms of its usability. Benches by the water so that people could come and enjoy a spring day would be a nice addition. The benches could be sponsored by local businesses to defray the cost.
Also, adding signage to explain the history and environmental benefits of the Preserve to visitors would add an educational element to the Preserve. The sign or signs could point out what the Preserve lands were like before the Preserve was created, what was done to make them more environmentally sound, and the environmental benefits of the Preserve area.
Any initiative within the Preserve to add amenities, including benches or signs, should be planned in a way that recognizes the flooding that takes place within the preserve. New amenities should be placed and installed in a manner that will protect them from being damaged or washed away during flood events. Creative installation of the new amenities may even help delineate the floodprone areas and educate the public on proper floodplain management.
Like Pennsburg Community Park, there is no way-finding signage to direct locals or visitors from Main Street to the Preserve. Unless one has prior knowledge that the Preserve exists, there is no way to find it without a healthy dose of luck. Adding two simple and readable signs to Main Street, one facing either direction on the roadway, would boost local awareness of the Preserve and its goals as well as increas- ing its usage by the community.
Making these simple additions to these facilities would increase both people’s knowledge of them and their usability, serving to make them larger assets in the community. Fig. 4.4. An attractive bicycle stand can help encourage cyclists to bike in the Borough. Fig. 4.3. The fields behind the softball field in 8th Street park hold both prom- ise and stormwater. 38 Chapter 4:: Recreational Opportunities Installing New Facilities
Installing new facilities will allow Pennsburg to keep adding to the lives of its citizens. There is a need for new facilities in Pennsburg, and those facilities have been outlined below:
The Upper Perkiomen Valley is a destination for cyclists of all ages and ability levels. The rolling hills and scenic vistas attract cyclists from far and wide to the area, and the addition of new bike-friendly facilities could capitalize on the Valley’s popularity and make Pennsburg a cy- cling attraction within and outside of the region.
The Perkiomen Trail leads cyclists within a close distance of the Bor- ough, and cyclists from the Borough itself could also make use of some new facilities. Primarily, the installation of new bicycle racks would make biking through the Borough easier. Figure 4.6 illustrates poten- tial locations in the Borough where bicycle racks could improve the attractiveness of existing amenities. By giving cyclists a place to store their bicycles, the Borough would be encouraging cycling in the Bor- ough and encouraging cyclists to stop and shop in Pennsburg.
While there are no specific plans to bring Montgomery County’s trail system to Pennsburg, denoting locations for an intra-Borough trail could be a good precursor to connecting with the County’s trail sys- tem. Showing an interest in trails by laying out a trail in Pennsburg could be a forerunner to connecting to both the Perkiomen and Ma- coby Greenways and the Perkiomen Trail, all of which would serve to bring more people into the Borough, as well as to provide additional walking and bicycling facilities for Borough residents.
The process of laying out intra-borough trails would not have to be complicated in terms of construction. Simple signs indicating the way and articulating interesting and important facts would lead people Fig. 4.5. A sign on a walking trail through Manayunk tells walkers both where they are and where they can go. 39 Getting Back To Main Street: A Revitalization Plan for Pennsburg Fig. 4.6. Placing facilities for bicycles at important locations within the Borough could help boost bike usage and lead to a better quality of life for Borough resi- dents. 40 Chapter 4:: Recreational Opportunities along the trail. New trails could lead from park to park and from site to site within the borough and could serve to increase the use of cer- tain facilities as well as to promote exercise and a healthy lifestyle within the Borough. This is discussed more thoroughly in the Heritage Trail section of Chapter 6.
This chapter’s goal is to increase the availability of recreational facilities as well as the viability of existing facilities in Pennsburg. Pennsburg’s Nature Preserve and Pennsburg Community Park are both good facili- ties where improvements could yield higher numbers of park users.
The addition of the Green Lane Tool & Die property to Pennsburg Community Park is an opportunity to increase the viability of the park in a number of ways, such as adding more formalized walking trails, adding stormwater BMPs to help mitigate the stormwater and add an educational component to the park, while adding a civic space for local music and theatre acts in the warmer months.
Pennsburg Nature Preserve could be made more user-friendly with a few simple additions, such as additional seating and educational and directional signage.
Adding bicycle facilities, primarily bike racks, would allow Pennsburg residents and out-of-town bicyclists to bike to and from major make Borough points of interest. This would serve as a first step towards making bicycling in the Borough a more user-friendly experience. This could be augmented by the addition of walking and/or hiking trails to the Borough, which could serve as the impetus towards extending the Montgomery County’s trail system, including the highly used Perki- omen Trail, into the Borough.
• First Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 •
•
•
•
Economic Incentives Chapter 42 42 Chapter 5 : Economic Incentives Instituting economic incentives are a valuable way to assist in achieving the revitalization goals and objectives of the Borough. The suggestions within this chapter are targeted to assist the Borough in its economic re-development. In short, the goal is to increase the ease of both de- veloping and maintaining a business in the Borough. This chapter pro- vides suggestions explained in detail to increase the number and mar- ketability of borough businesses. Specifically, physical attractiveness, small business development, business marketing, and other economic tools are discussed and case studies to help illustrate important points are provided.
Undertaking a comprehensive market study can help increase the suc- cess of economic revitalization. The purpose of a market study is to inform the community as to its opportunities, available options, and the benefits and drawbacks associated with each option. The study can provide a snapshot of existing resources and insight into the cur- rent and potential economic situation. The study will document the area’s residents, workers, employers, available land, types of housing, commercial and industrial facilities, physical infrastructure (e.g. tele- communications and transportation facilities), and historic or heritage sites. The study will also provide figures, forecasts and impacts associ- ated with different growth scenarios for the Borough.
This could include possible sites for redevelopment, such as the former Wachovia Bank building, seen in Figure 5.2. The central location and historic nature of the building make it a prime site for redevelopment in the Borough. Grants and funding for such a study can be obtained from a variety of sources, which are outlined in the implementation matrix found in Chapter 7.
A preliminary study was done for the Regional Comprehensive Plan, and the Borough could use this as a foundation in further detailing what goods and services are needed in the community. Alternately, the Bor- ough could potentially make use of the data from the Perk Up plan, authored by the Upper Perkiomen Valley Cham- ber of Commerce.
As part of the overall effort to restore and revitalize the historic streetscape and business patterns of the main com- mercial core, a historic inventory is an excellent resource to undertake. It can aid in recognizing, maintaining, and protecting the Borough’s unique histori- cal, cultural, and archeological sites. Being listed in an inventory is not the same as a historic designation, but it does imply that a property has his- Figure 5.1. A historic resource inventory could include a list of historic and cultural resources that are candidates for preservation. 43 43 Getting Back To Main Street: A Revitalization Plan for Pennsburg Figure 5.2. The former Wachovia Bank is a possible site for redevelopment. A detailed market study and historic sites inventory could assist with further assess- ment of Main Street and Route 663 that are most susceptible to change. 44 44 Chapter 5 : Economic Incentives Overall Case Study
In 1990, a handful of residents established Newport Revitalization, Inc. (NRI) to combat the decline of downtown Newport Borough, in Perry County. Since then, NRI has become a 501(c)(3) non-profit and now includes about 400 members. The group’s activities are guided by a strate- gic plan, which was developed in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Downtown Center. The planning process contained several elements that Pennsburg is looking to explore, including a consumer survey and market analysis, a business owner survey and analysis, and a preliminary historic sites survey. The information from the planning process was used to guide the implementation plan, which guided marketing, physical rehabilitation, and business development. A notable achievement has been the façade improvements to many downtown buildings, many of which were supported by a $25,000 grant from a local utility company and a matching grant from local businesses. A local bank also provided low interest loans to businesses enrolled in the façade program. Other efforts of NRI include an annual community clean-up day with local school participation, flower planting to build community ownership of the revitalization process, and a yearly Christmas House Tour of the interesting and historic homes of Newport. After enlisting the help of a consultant to design a streetscape, NRI also helped the borough secure nearly $800,000 in Transportation Enhance- ment Act-21 (TEA-21) funding from the state Department of Transportation’s (PennDOT) Sustainable Streets Program. The money is ear- marked to help reconstruct the main street by adding new crosswalks, lighting, and landscaping. 45 45 Getting Back To Main Street: A Revitalization Plan for Pennsburg Figure 5.3. Small business development centers can help Pennsburg retain its local businesses, such as this professional office complex on Main St., and create new opportunities. torical and architectural significance. Cataloguing, preserving and maintaining these resources help to create an awareness and apprecia- tion of the Borough’s rich history.
The Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center completed a compre- hensive study of the historic resources for each of the communities in the Upper Perkiomen Region, including Pennsburg. The study in- cludes twenty historic sites complete with corresponding historical in- formation. As the study was completed in 2004 some of the informa- tion is no longer accurate, but the majority of the study could easily serve as the backbone for a new historic sites inventory.
Currently, there are not enough small businesses to develop a diverse, sustainable commercial setting for the main business corridors of the Borough. A possible approach towards maintaining and improving the businesses in the borough’s commercial core is the development of a small business development assistance program. This can provide tech- nical assistance through training and financial support via a small grants program to businesses in the commercial district. It can also provide networking and empowerment activities, and training for en- trepreneurs and other commercial and retail personnel. The program can be run by an umbrella organization, such as an economic develop- ment committee, or the Chamber of Commerce, or a Main Streets program, development of which is another recommendation of this plan.
The program’s goals would be to assist the maximum number of busi- nesses and individuals, while still retaining program quality and rele- vance. Businesses can receive one or more of the following services, based on a needs assessment: accounting, business administration, business restructuring, property acquisition and commercial leasing, shopper increase and retention, customer service preparation, financial management and capital acquisitions, marketing, recordkeeping and reporting, regulatory compliance, retail merchandising and promotion, and façade revitalization design and improvement. |
