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• Item #2.0 City of * *- --, Elk River MEMORANDUM TO: Planning Commission FROM: Chris Leeseberg, Planner DATE: June I I, 2002 SUBJECT: Downtown Design Standards Request Staff is requesting the Planning Commission view images of other downtowns to help determine what our Downtown Design Standards should be. • Overview As you may be aware,many communities are trying to reproduce downtowns. They may be doing it from scratch or from an existing older downtown. Either way they are approaching it,the end result is to have a downtown with character. This is exactly what we are trying to do with our existing downtown. We want to maintain the character we currently have but also to further encourage this character with any future development. On May 10, 2002,Scott and myself embarked on a journey through central Minnesota to document similar downtowns. We traveled to the downtowns of St.Cloud,Rice,Royalton, Little Falls,Long Prairie,Sauk Centre,Glenwood,Brooten,Melrose,Albany,Monticello and Anoka. Out of the 180+ images we took,we have prepared an exercise to try to extract what it is about other similar sized downtowns that you prefer. We will be showing approximately 115 images in a PowerPoint presentation. Due to the large number of images we have to go through,we hope to keep each up on the screen for about a minute,so the answers will need to be quick. After the presentation,we can go back to specific images and further analyze them. When looking at the images we would like you to express what it is you like and/or don't like about the images. We would like to stay away from answers such as, "I like brick". Instead, we want to know what it is about the brick you like, such as, the texture, color, IIIwarmth,detail,amount used,etc. Although,if there is a unique item,like a structural beam