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Council asks staff to compile downtown improvement packet; workshop possible next step
Summary
Council discussed a proposed downtown improvement plan that would build on a 2022 CBD vitalization task force and the Terrain Architecture plan; staff will prepare a packet summarizing completed work, in-progress items and outstanding tasks and return with a line-item budget and survey results.
City planning staff briefed the Grants Pass City Council on Sept. 2 about next steps to develop a Downtown Improvement Plan tied to the council’s strategic goals. Brad (staff) said the city has multiple existing documents and projects related to downtown—chief among them the 2022 Central Business District (CBD) Vitalization Task Force recommendations and the Terrain Architecture downtown plan—and asked for council guidance on scope, boundaries and priorities.
Staff described the Central Business District (CBD) boundary used for planning work (roughly C Street north to J Street south, Eighth Street east and about Third Street west) and noted the downtown area is roughly 79 acres and includes the locally designated historic district. The presentation outlined investments already made since 2022 (welcome center restrooms, parklets, alley improvements, initial work on the Owl Plaza and improvements to public parking lots) as well as budget context: the downtown development cost center for FY26 is roughly $644,000, funded about 73% from the general fund and about 23% from lodging tax revenues, and includes roughly one dedicated full-time equivalent position to downtown services.
Councilors discussed whether to pursue new public outreach or to rely on prior task force and plan work. Some members urged a focused public-scoping process to confirm priorities and to capture perspectives from businesses not represented in past efforts; others said it would be useful to finish projects already underway (for example, Owl Plaza) and then solicit public input with tangible examples in place. Several councilors asked staff to produce a packet that lists what has been completed, what is in progress and what has not been started; they also requested a line-item breakdown of recent downtown-related spending and copies of prior surveys and the 2022 task force report.
Brad told the council he would compile that packet and circulate it to members. He said the next step could be a council workshop to refine scope and priorities for a formal downtown improvement plan.
Quoted: “So we're requesting clarification on kind of these three big things: the boundaries, the specific activities that you'd like to see, and then some guidance on timeline and priorities,” Brad said in the presentation.
Next steps: staff will prepare and distribute a packet containing prior surveys, the task force report, a detailed line-item budget for downtown activities and a list of completed, ongoing and not-started initiatives; council indicated interest in a follow-up workshop after reviewing the packet.
