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Attend the Downtown Revitalization Kickoff

Wednesday, January 28th

Taylors Falls Memorial Community Center

312 W. Government St. (Historic Depot)

PROGRAM

5:30 pm.  Community Social Hour – Refreshments hosted by the city

6 pm.  Downtown Workshop Presentation

6:30 pm.  Taylors Falls Rebranding Unveiling

The City of Taylors Falls is updating the city’s comprehensive plan and throughout the winter planning activities will be focusing on downtown’s issues and assessing its potential opportunities to make it a desired destination for visitors near and far. There are no simple solutions to making a downtown a vibrant ‘go to’ designation for local residents and tourists to enjoy. When visitors (including residents) come downtown, what they experience will determine if they return. Offering a fun and exciting experience for downtown visitors 12-months a year is a challenge, especially when considering all the essential attributes (below) that collectively create a successful thriving downtown.   

We Seek Your Participation

Downtown Taylors Falls needs your help addressing these critical attributes that support a successful downtown. The Community Action Committee (CAP) committee identified many ideas, concepts, and recommendations for downtown, but we now need your help in determining the remaining planning details of what goes where so we can literally map its future moving forward.

Each of these topics will be thoroughly reviewed and planned by participants during this series of 8 weekly workshops. Please use the links provided to sign-up for as many of the session topics of interest to you or sign-up for all 8 sessions. Your participation will directly impact downtown’s future.

Workshop Session Topics

Attractions and Amenities

Every successful downtown has a number of elements, features or attractions that draw visitors from far and near. These attractions don’t just naturally appear. They are purposely created to provide visitors a reason for visiting one downtown over another. When attractions are carefully developed, a wide variety of complimentary amenities are created offering additional activities, interaction, and experiences.    

Visitor Safety

Visitors may come to downtown, but if they don’t feel safe or are placed in unsafe situations, will they return? Downtown poses any number of safety issues, from crossing Hwy 8 to improving pedestrian safety at other intersections along Bench St. Creating safe interactions between people, cars, and large semi-trailers is tricky, but it can be done with the latest planning methods and a little creativity.

Business Mix Considerations

If you play cards, the only way to win is to have the best hand. The only way downtowns are successful is if they have a winning hand of business offerings. Having the right mix of businesses offering a variety and often complimentary products and services will attract the largest number of visitors on a routine basis. Achieving a winning hand of businesses can be a challenge, but it must be the goal. What’s offered downtown determines repeat business, which in turn supports regular foot traffic, which creates a healthy and vibrant downtown. 

Ambiance, Theme, and Branding

We’ve all been to a downtown that’s run down, neglected, unattractive, and uninspiring. Does this make you want to return? (Probably not). A renewed sense of pride from business and property owners is paramount to creating a downtown people want to visit time and time again. Creating the right overarching ambiance sets the tone and evokes the positive feeling people get from just being downtown. The physical character of each building incrementally supports the overall theme and resulting emotional attributes that makes downtown unique. This impactful feeling visitors get when being downtown is the downtown’s brand. What is downtown’s current brand saying to you?  

Wayfinding

Ever been confused, not knowing which way to go? Happens all the time, right? It should never happen downtown. When visitors take precious time from their busy lives to spend it downtown, don’t make it difficult for them. Downtown must offer easily seen and understood information providing direction, enticing attractions, and ease of navigating from point to point, block to block. Like an intriguing detective story, wayfinding offers a variety of signs that point visitors in all the different directions you want them to go. When done correctly, wayfinding further enhances downtown’s theme, character and overall brand. 

Events and Activities

Even when a downtown has its collective act together, it still needs a reason for people to come and visit. Well-conceived events and activities properly disbursed throughout the calendar year provide a wide range of interesting activities and interaction appealing to specific market segments. Is it time to rethink existing events? Discontinue old ones? Generate new events and fresh activities appealing to a new generation of visitors? These are tough questions but important ones. Thoughtfully created events designed to meet a specific objective or visitor segment not only offers fun and excitement to those participating, it provides essential flow of new visitors eager to adopt downtown as their go-to destination year after year.

Promotion

Downtown may have the charm and fun events people are attracted to, but if they don’t know about it, what’s the point, right? Bringing visitors downtown on a regular basis requires well-planned promotional efforts conducted by dedicated individuals. With the right people and the proper tools, a well-constructed promotional plan can be developed and implemented with well-coordinated precision to produce increased visitor traffic all year long. 

Grants and Funding

Unfortunately, all the things we have been reviewing here don’t happen without some form of investment. This investment can come from a wide variety of sources; individuals, businesses, property owners, area grants, state programs, or even federal grants. But when a community invests in their community, everyone wins. The investment may be donated time, a financial contribution, or in-kind resource. But a well-intentioned team of citizens who enjoy searching and attracting support will provide the needed funding, one success at a time.

Extended Focus Sessions

We are also looking for individuals willing to offer additional time on two extended sessions where more time is devoted to creating detailed concepts and maps depicting potential long-term solutions. These sessions will require any number of meetings to complete their desired plans.

Downtown Riverwalk

These sessions will take a deeper dive into all the various planning elements needed to come together to complete the Riverwalk project. This includes ideas from the past and those created by the CAP committee.

Hwy 8 Intersection

The intersection of Hwy 8 and Bench St. (Hwy 95) poses serious safety issues, especially for pedestrians. Can there be real solutions to this challenging situation? Let’s find out.   

Workshop Schedule, Times and Location

These weekly sessions are scheduled for Wednesday evenings at the Community Center (Historic depot) starting at 5 pm and concluding around 7 pm or as may be determined by completion of activities by participants. 

It’s the goal of each session to complete the planning and mapping tasks within the general 2-hour timeframe. Actual time needed my vary for each topic. 

Workshop Weekly Schedule

Session #1 Attractions and Amenities | Feb 4

Session #2 Visitor Safety | Feb 11

Session #3 Business Mix Considerations | Feb 18

Session #4 Ambiance, Theme, and Branding | Feb 25

Session #5  Wayfinding | Mar 4

Session #6  Events and Activities | Mar 11

Session #7 Promotion | Mar 18

Session #8 Grants and Funding | Mar 25

Extended Focus Schedule

Session schedule will be determined once participation interest is known.  

Project Contact Information

If you have questions, please contact facilitator, Todd Streeter, principal, Community Collaboration for more information at Todd@InvolvementisGood.com.