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Fairfield receives downtown assessment
Group suggests undoing one-way streets, adding spring events
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – A team of development experts was in Fairfield from Nov. 19-21 to meet with members of the community about how to improve the downtown.
The group, known as the Downtown Resource Center and part of Iowa Economic Development Authority, presented its findings during a public meeting Thursday, Nov. 21 at city hall. The five-member group reviewed downtown Fairfield’s strengths and weaknesses, and told attendees about proposed changes they could make, often using other cities as examples.
The group’s director, Jim Engle, said the Downtown Resource Center does six to nine of these long two- or three-day assessments per year. Engle is from Sigourney, so he had been in Fairfield before, and it was nice to study its downtown so thoroughly and meet so many people such as realtors, city workers, representatives of the school, those involved in arts and culture, and more.
“Typically, we’re working in small, agricultural and traditional downtowns, but Fairfield is a little bit different,” Engle said. “It has a different vibe here with a lot of ethnic restaurants and Maharishi [International University]. We had a meeting with travel writers, and they had nothing bad to say about downtown Fairfield.”
One of the biggest challenges that Engle and the other four members of the Downtown Resource Center noticed was the one-way streets.
“When I came into town, I was looking for the chamber of commerce, and even though I knew where it was, I still struggled to get to it,” Engle said.
Engle said that, as a general rule, locals get used to one-way streets and learn how to navigate them, even though they are a pain for visitors. However, he was surprised to meet so many Fairfield residents who said the one-way streets “do us no favors.” Engle said Ottumwa reversed its previously one-way downtown, and he encourages Fairfield’s city leaders to consult Ottumwa’s about how they did it.
“The only difference is that [Ottumwa] has a more grid, linear downtown versus a square like you have here,” he said.
Engle doesn’t want the few criticisms the group had to distract from the fact that Fairfield has a great downtown.
“We love the gazebo, love the Christmas lights and the architecture is great,” Engle said. “Through the years, buildings get run-down and you just about have to have local incentives and take advantage of state and national incentives for building rehabilitation.”
Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mendy McAdams said the cost of this downtown assessment was half price, normally a $2,500 price tag, because the city applied but failed to become a Main Street Iowa community last year. She said the organizations that split the cost of this assessment - Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce, City of Fairfield, Grow Fairfield, and Visit Fairfield – all see the downtown as within their purview, but all of them have other parts of town to worry about, too. If Fairfield were to become a Main Street community, its Main Street office could devote full time to promoting the downtown and fixing some of the issues highlighted in the assessment. Main Street Fairfield would have its own executive director and board of directors.
McAdams said she was overwhelmed by the interest in this assessment from Fairfield residents, and estimated that between 150-200 people met the Downtown Resource Center group during their stay.
Besides Engle, the other four members of the group were Jeff Geerts, Darlene Strachan, Dennis Reynolds and Keegan Hall. They will write a report of their findings, probably 30-40 pages, which they will give to Fairfield in four to six weeks.
The group’s public presentation on Thursday, Nov. 21 lasted about 90 minutes, and included the following observations and suggestions:
- Businesses should update their hours both online and on their storefronts.
- Lights on the northwest corner of the square are too tall and too far apart, and probably annoy the second-story apartment dwellers by shining into their rooms all night. Shorter lights would create better ambiance.
- Businesses mentioned for having good lighting were Aranda’s, Torino’s and the new Barbershop on Broadway. Group members said they could see activity inside and it made the downtown inviting.
- Some storefront windows and doors are covered in posters. This should be kept to a minimum. Try to find other ways to advertise events. The cities of Marion and Woodbine have installed informational kiosks for this purpose.
- Think of something to put in vacant storefronts, such as an art exhibit or museum artifacts.
- Canopy on northeast corner of square is not ideal because it can come off in a snowstorm.
- On that same corner, the former JC Penny building at the intersection of Court and Broadway is an “amazing building” but will also be a “heavy lift” to rehabilitate. The group suggested turning the back of the building into parking.
- Orpheum Theatre is full of businesses but could use façade improvements.
- Some locals told the board that Fairfield has fewer retailers than neighboring cities such as Washington and Mt. Pleasant, and the group noted that both those towns have Main Street programs.
- Consider creating a vacant building registry like Shenandoah did. If properties remain vacant for more than six months, landlord has to start paying a fee to the city.
- Fairfield could use a few shopping events to bring people downtown, as well as a spring event since that is a season when the town has few events. The town is also in need of a “unique” event, though the group mentioned that one might be in the works with a fermentation theme.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
