BROOKINGS A 10-year plan to improve downtown Brookings, formally known as the Downtown Brookings Master Plan, had its moment in the sun before the City Council on Tuesday night and was promptly tabled so councilors could have more time to read the 94-page report.
The goal of the planning effort, which took 11 months from start to finish, is to provide the city and its residents with ideas as part of a larger downtown revitalization initiative. It subdivides downtown into five areas Main Avenue, West Edge, East Edge, Sixth Street and Southside and offers options for each area to, per the report from Cory Scott of RDG Planning & Design, present opportunities to strengthen and challenges to resolve.
Ideas for each area include:
Main Avenue
- Leverage investments at the Armory and proposed new hotel
- Preserve historic buildings
- Refresh the streetscape
- Support existing businesses
- Improve safety for travelers
West Edge
- Improve east-west connections for pedestrians crossing Third Avenue
- Retrofit Third Avenue with angle parking
- Look into redevelopment scenarios for the Public Safety Building
- Explore 72-hour lot redevelopment scenarios
East Edge
- Improve east-west connections for pedestrians crossing Fifth Avenue
- Retrofit Fifth Avenue with angle parking
- Explore possibilities for public gathering space
- Improve alleyways and parking
Sixth Street
- Improve impressions upon arrival on Main Avenue
- Consider development ideas and future connections for the City Plaza
- Consider contingency redirection of property
Southside
- New housing opportunities
- Explore scenarios for enhancing or further developing Southside Park
- Look into ideas for underused property
- Reinforce the future redevelopment character established by the Lofts at Main
The city will direct funding to help implement the plan if its adopted at a future City Council meeting. Those funds include $130,000 designated to Downtown Brookings, a group which creates and maintains programs to enhance the experiences of businesses, citizens and visitors in the downtown, per its Facebook page.
Other possible funding sources include the creation of a business improvement district, grant money and a tax increment financing district.
The vote to table the resolution was 6-0, with Councilor Brianna Doran absent.
Downtown at Sundown
At Tuesday nights meeting, city councilors also heard the annual report for the Downtown at Sundown series of concerts that took place in August. Highlights presented by Brookings Area Chamber of Commerce representative Ainsley Bennett include:
- Altogether, there were 38 vendors 20 were returning, while 18 were new. The mix included nine food vendors, 10 nonprofit vendors, three retail vendors, four multicultural vendors and 12 sponsor vendors
- Revenue came in at $81,637.67, a bit below the projected $87,825
- Expenses were less than anticipated, with a total of $70,203.01. Projections had pegged them at $80,250. A big chunk of those savings came from the entertainment segment, which came in $13,300 under budget
- The biggest evening, attendance-wise, was SDSU Night. It drew in 3,635 guests. The least-attended Downtown at Sundown was the first one on Aug. 1, bringing in 2,493 attendees
- Total attendance clocked in at 15,603 a decline of 22% from 2023, when 20,123 took part in the August concerts. Bennett said the tracking system this year produced more accurate attendance numbers than the system used in the past
Margos Place
Councilors also heard from Carolyn Galvin, the executive director for Margos Place in Brookings. Her report came after a proclamation from Brookings Mayor Oepke Ope Niemeyer declaring October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
- The shelter helped 217 clients during its just-ended fiscal year, which runs from October to September. Out of those clients, 28 received sexual assault services and 74 were sheltered for a total of 3,482 shelter days.
- Margos Place provided 625 services into the communities it serves
- The shelter helps clients in Brookings and Kingsbury counties
- It has a 24-hour rape/shelter/crisis hotline
- The shelter carries out rape/crisis response emergency room advocacy
- A weekly support group is offered
- If able, staffers will also sit in court with clients as a form of support
- Referral to other support services in the community, such as Inter-Lakes Community Action Partnership and United Way
Lastly, in other business, councilors rejected, on a 6-0 vote, a proposal for amendments to the citys zoning ordinances linked to rules in the Commercial Corridor Design Review Overlay District.
The idea was to streamline processes in order to make the regulatory process more efficient, but some concerns were raised from councilors and members of the public alike regarding the potential loss of public input via City Council involvement.
City staffers will further refine the issue and bring it back to councilors in a future meeting.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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