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National Main Street review flags work-plan detail and historic-preservation guidance for Coldwater program
Summary
The DDA reviewed National Main Street’s site-visit report and recommendations, which praised many program elements but urged stronger work-plan detail, a local historic-preservation/design guideline and increased focus on small business development and volunteer recruitment.
Audrey summarized National Main Street’s recent review of the Coldwater Main Street program and outlined the recommended next steps the organization provided after a fall site visit and the program’s written self-assessment.
The DDA meets most National Main Street minimum standards, Audrey said, but the site-visit report recommends improvements in two main areas: clearer, more detailed work plans with assigned task ownership; and a stronger local historic-preservation ethic, including design guidelines tailored to Coldwater’s architecture and more technical review of impactful projects. The report also encouraged the DDA to formalize a fund-development plan, increase small-business development programming, and recruit volunteers and storytellers to improve organizational visibility.
Audrey said the DDA is already taking steps in many of these areas: it has drafted a fund-development plan and begun outreach, the economic vitality committee will deliver two business-development workshops in 2025, and the board has increased outreach via meetups, printed materials and a quarterly newsletter. For work plans, National Main Street suggested more detailed action items and named volunteer or staff owners rather than leaving tasks to the director alone; the DDA will use project summaries for some items that do not require full work plans.
Audrey said the next in-person National Main Street visit is scheduled for Oct. 16, 2025, and staff will continue to align DDA work plans and capacity with the recommendations.
