Outside consultants have big ideas for downtown Williamsburg.
A consulting team has concluded its study of the downtown area, and presented its findings and suggestions to the Williamsburg’s City Council and Economic Development Authority at the Stryker Center Monday.
The EDA launched the project in September 2016 and retained Econsult Solutions Inc. and Group Melvin Design as a consulting team to help create a vision for downtown redevelopment.
The team defined downtown as areas east of Richmond Road, South of Lafayette Street, and continuing south between Boundary and Nassau Streets. For purposes of the study, Downtown encompasses Merchants Square, the Williamsburg Library, The Municipal and Community Buildings, the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg and the William & Mary Law School.
City officials were told they were starting from a position of strength, but the consultants compared the area to a nice pair of shoes — broken in and comfortable, but could use some polish.
The team stressed that improvements could make downtown more appealing to residents, students and tourists alike.
“There are so many great aspects of downtown, but part of our job is identifying some of the challenges,” said Sara Woolf, planner and urban designer with Group Melvin Design. “You don’t really get that organic mixture of people that you do in some of the more active downtowns, and that leads to less vibrancy.”
Instead, Woolf said, tourists tend to visit Duke of Gloucester Street, while students and residents have their own favorite spots. They agreed the key was to create more places, such as coffee shops, that give people a reason to visit, mingle and linger in downtown.
Catherine Timko, senior advisor with Econsult Solutions, referred to a survey the consulting team conducted among Greater Williamsburg residents. She said the team found residents want more diverse food options in downtown, and that the downtown’s retail options did not score well on the survey.
“What is here is not necessarily the right mix for who’s coming here,” Timko said.
Timko advised city officials that the city was in a strong position to attract retailers to downtown that could fill citizen interests, and suggested a 30,000 square foot grocer that would both fill a niche and draw foot traffic to boost surrounding businesses.
She added more than 500 people responded to the survey.
The team suggested officials consider adding a beer garden and other “tiny shops” in the triangle between Scotland Street, Prince George Street and Armistead Avenue. They also recommended transforming the green spaces in front of the community building and library into a city park for events, such as movie nights and concerts.
Other ideas included a “restaurant row” along Scotland Street, a redesign of Merchants Square, and residences or mixed-use buildings on underused parking lots.
Many of the other suggestions were cosmetic in nature, including installing bike racks, benches, lighting, landscaping and wayfinding signs— all to attract people to downtown and make them want to stay.
Mayor Paul Freiling said he appreciated the consultants’ ideas, and said creating a hub of activity would be a “terrific benefit” to residents and tourists alike.
Now, the challenge for the city is to select which ideas to pursue, find ways and funding to implement them, and market the enhanced downtown hub across the region, he added.
“What we’re doing is creating a greater diversity of entertainment opportunities that attracts people,” Freiling said. “It adds to the quality of life of the people who live here because they feel like they live in a really cool place with a lot of fun, interesting things to do, and they’ll want to spend more time in the downtown area.”
