Gathered in an old, repurposed building next to a green city park that was a parking lot five years ago, Phoenix city planners and citizens discussed ways to bring the zest that revitalized downtown to the rest of Phoenix.
A PlanPHX ASU Forum was held Wednesday at the A.E. England Building to discuss the future of Phoenix. Approximately 20 people attended, many of whom were city of Phoenix employees.
PlanPHX, a city of Phoenix initiative to set the direction for the city’s future, hopes to bring the same speed and energy to the rest of the city and continue efforts to transform downtown.
Over the past year, the PlanPHX Leadership Committee has asked Phoenix residents what they love about Phoenix and what their ideas for the future of the city are. Through its website, myplanphx.com, and feedback at many community events, the committee presented five main themes it saw in its ideas.
These ideas will shape Phoenix’s next General Plan, a document guiding everything from budgets to zoning that will be brought before Phoenix voters in 2015.
“Our existing plan is a six and a half pound document nobody else reads (outside city hall),” said Joshua Bednarek, PlanPHX Project Manager for the city of Phoenix. “As we put together this new plan, we need it to be in a format that’s more indicative of how we get our information.”
Bednarek said he wanted to keep the dialogue with Phoenix residents open and more of an ongoing discussion, rather than something revisited every 10 years with the General Plan.
“As a planner, I’m really excited about people continuing to participate,” Bednarked said. “We brought this website online, and it’s been fairly successful for people staying engaged and participating.”
In its themes, the committee looked for resources already in Phoenix, as well as trends in other cities. Among those themes were forming a “connected oasis,” building a sustainable desert city, creating a denser downtown, focusing on communities, and utilizing sensible processes for executing ideas.
Throughout the meeting and brainstorm session, discussion of building denser, more walkable neighborhoods and leveraging the light rail infrastructure were popular ideas.
“Light rail has gotten us to think differently about our city,” said Braden Kay, a professor at the School of Sustainability and local community advocate. “It’s allowed for some amazing development opportunities for living along the light rail.”
Kay is a community outreach coordinator for Reinvent Phoenix, a group that includes the city of Phoenix, ASU, and St. Luke’s Health Initiatives. Reinvent Phoenix received a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2011 to create a long-term, sustainable community plan centered around Phoenix’s light rail. Phoenix received the largest grant out of 40 cities that received funding.
If you walked through downtown Phoenix seven years ago, you couldn’t find a light rail, 10,000 ASU students, LEED-certified green buildings and a campus now home to one-third of ASU’s colleges. ASU will continue to expand downtown with the addition of the Arizona Law Center, set to open in 2016.
Christopher Callahan, dean of the Walter Cronkite School and vice provost for the Downtown campus, said the speed of the transformation was tremendous, taking months and years instead of decades. A neighborhood that used to be parking lots and empty lots is now a thriving university, small businesses and cultural venues. He said that ASU wasn’t the only factor, but was — and continues to be — a major catalyst transforming downtown Phoenix.
“This was a completely different city not that long ago,” Callahan said. “I could never have imagined 10 years ago where we are today.”
Contact the reporter at dbryan3@asu.edu
