Future of Downtowns

Most regional planning efforts are based on a familiar model: that to prevent sprawl and its associated ills, development should be concentrated in the places that are already urbanized. By doing so, we prevent the consumption of open space resources, make efficient use of existing infrastructure investments – especially transit – and support established communities.

Typically, we talk about directing growth to the region’s downtowns because these are the places that we most associate with these attributes – existing infrastructure, transit access and established communities. In reality, we know the urbanized landscape where we might target growth is much more complex and as described below, is becoming more so.

• There is a huge diversity in the size, character and context of what we are lumping into this large category of ​“downtowns”.
• The role that downtowns will play in the vitality of the region is changing because both the nature of work is changing and the region has settled into a pattern of distributed growth that is unlikely to be reversed.
• The very definition of ​“downtown” is itself in flux, as other kinds of mixed-use development patterns such as corridors may sometimes function as the de facto downtowns for the communities that surround them.