ArtSpace ends formal work on Carbondale Town Center after funding and zoning constraints

ArtSpace Projects representatives told the Carbondale Board of Trustees on Dec. 9 that, after intensive community engagement and design work, they are concluding their contracted services for the town‑center project because they do not see a viable path forward under existing funding and regulatory constraints.

The announcement came during a presentation by Andrew Michelson of ArtSpace Projects, who summarized a multi‑year outreach, charrette and design process and said the team had produced usable documents for the town. "We've sadly arrived at a position today where we don't see that path forward and are, you know, formally concluding the work that we've been doing together," Michelson said, adding that ArtSpace remains available informally as a resource.

Why it matters: Trustees and staff said the work delivered a valuable design and community engagement record that the town can reuse in future efforts. ArtSpace and the design team identified three recurring constraints: height limits, parking requirements and the obligation to activate ground‑floor commercial space on the promenade. Those elements, trustees were told, drove up infrastructure and parking costs and squeezed unit counts, undermining the affordability assumptions needed to secure state housing funds.

Board members asked specific questions about zoning flexibility and funding pathways. ArtSpace representatives reiterated that the site had been tested to the maximum allowed under current zoning and that parking compliance and commercial activation expectations made additional density or height increases insufficient to offset costs. Will Law of ArtSpace said some programs and state funding streams are geared toward more urban typologies and therefore do not easily fit a small‑town site like Carbondale.

Trustees discussed next steps for the town. Several suggested pausing to consider a broader downtown strategy that could include shifting parking, testing alternative activation approaches for the promenade, or phasing limited residential components tied to realistic funding targets. ArtSpace recommended the town use the existing drawings as a starting point rather than discarding the work.

What comes next: ArtSpace provided a memo and the design deliverables to the board and offered ongoing informal consultation. Trustees indicated they would review the materials and discuss the project’s future at a planned work session, with one trustee suggesting that revisiting parking strategies or incremental activation could make the site more financeable.