Oct 13, 2008

City seeks ideas for downtownBy Steve LynnDaily-Times.com

Farmington, NM — Not enough people shop downtown, so Shawn Carlson and Frances Maness are moving their business east.

The owners of antiques shop Regenerated Treasures decided not to renew their three-year lease on the Main Street space, so they will move to East Main Street.

“People aren’t going downtown anymore,” Carlson said.

The city wants to bring more commerce downtown by revitalizing Main Street and downtown neighborhoods. It’s trying to figure out how to do that and what those areas could look like by holding four public meetings where residents can pitch ideas next week.

The city has hired Sites Southwest, an Albuquerque planning firm, and Strategy 5, a Smithfield, Utah, economic development firm, to plan potential development.

A state grant will fund more than half of the approximately $127,000 bill for the firms and the city will pay the rest, said Cynthia Lopez, senior planner for the city. The firms will complete plans by June.

Those plans could include affordable housing, office complexes or new businesses, such as franchises, Lopez said.

“We need to hear from people what they want to see,” she said.

The city also wants to know what it can do to get people to invest in downtown.

“We’ll be asking the investors and bankers, What are some of the things you’re going to need to invest?'” she said.

More parking, better maintenance of historic buildings, rerouting roads, curbing public drunkenness, staying open later and other actions would help bring people back, local businesswomen said.

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