Vision Silver Lake Road 2040 Project

The City of New Brighton's Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 2019 following a 2.5+ year planning process, identified the City’s goals for development over the next 20 years on everything from housing to infrastructure to economic development.  To accomplish such goals in a fully-developed community, the Comprehensive Plan had to identify “potential areas of improvement” throughout the City that are well-situated for owner-driven redevelopment projects.   Three such nodes were identified along Silver Lake Road, and all three areas were guided for “mixed use development” to broaden their development potential.  The Vision Silver Lake Road 2040 planning project was subsequently launched to provide the City with needed input from the public to create zoning districts to govern these new mixed use areas.

Vision Silver Lake Road 2040 consisted of the following three phases:

Phase One - Initial Public Input (Completed in October 2021)

The first portion of the study focused on informing residents about all three areas guided for change, and sought input on how future redevelopment should look in terms of form, character, and amenities.   Outreach for this phase included signage within the Silver Lake Road corridor advertising the project and how to participate; direct mailings to business owners explaining the project, how to participate, and when to attend a town-hall style meeting; website postings; social media posts; a newsletter article; Farmers Market table information; and hosting of the Town Hall meeting to answer direct questions from residents and business owners alike.  The final results of Phase One public input were later summarized by our consultant in a multi-paged handout that can be downloaded from this link.

Part Two - Refining Public Input through Conceptual Illustrations (Completed in July 2022)

Using everything that was heard during the initial round of public input, the consultants leading Vision Silver Lake Road 2040 prepared illustrative concept plans for each mixed-use area to elicit additional comments and feedback from the Community. The illustrative concepts created for the Vision Silver Lake Road 2040 project were not development plans and they did not show desired changes to the built environment. Each concept plan was simply a single representation of conceptual development incorporating design aspects sought by the public during Phase I of the study.  Illustrating initial public feedback in this manner allowed the City to elicit additional comments from the public (to make sure we're on the right track) which in turn allowed the consultant to formulate final recommendations for base zoning concepts the City should strongly consider when crafting its new zoning districts. The final results of Phase Two public input were later summarized by our consultant in a multi-paged handout that can be downloaded from this link.

Phase Three - Consultant Identification of Zoning Foundations (in process)

To complete the project, feedback from Phase II engagement was compiled by the project consultant and was shared with the City Council & public at the September 27th City Council meeting.   The consultant used the results of the final round of engagement to develop recommendations on zoning standards the City should strongly consider building into final zoning districts based on all input to date.  New Brighton’s Assistant Director of Community Assets and Development, Ben Gozola, will be using this guidance to draft new mixed use zoning districts by the end of 2022. The final results of the Vision Silver Lake Road 2040 study and its recommendations are summarized in a multi-paged handout that can be downloaded from this link.

For more information, please see the FAQ below or check out the project website hosted by our consultant.

SLR


View All