A favorite block or business, restaurant or route that you love to visit? What does downtown mean to you?
Think about how much Downtown Fargo has changed in the past 10 years. Downtown buzzes with activity due to locally-owned and unique stores and restaurants. New lofts are attracting more Downtown residents. The City is investing in a new City Hall and work continues along the Red River to both handle flooding and provide valuable trails and open space. Downtown Fargo is starting to hit its stride as a destination, as an economic center, and increasingly, as a neighborhood.
What will the next decade and beyond bring for Downtown Fargo? Do you find yourself thinking about the next great opportunity for Downtown? Do you have ideas to share? If so, we need to hear from you.
Downtown InFocus is a comprehensive and open planning process to envision the future for Downtown Fargo and to serve as a blueprint for the coming years. All members of the public are invited to help shape this plan for Fargo’s core and take action to help implement the plan.
Facilitated by the City of Fargo and its partners, and in collaboration with the InFocus planning team, the plan will incorporate thorough research, community feedback, and expert planning. We hope you’ll get involved!
Downtown Fargo is the City’s foundation and represents a connection to both the area’s past and its future. Downtown’s unique character has attracted national television programming and is a major factor in attracting and retaining talent in the region. Whether you live and/or work in Downtown or not, Downtown is a critical component of the region’s economy.
Downtowns across the country, large and small, are seeing new investment and activity – the benefits of which lift the entire City. There’s more interest in living downtown than in decades past and in creating unique parks and programming that bring entire communities together. These actions require sustained and thoughtful investment and a recognition that downtowns are fundamentally different than the rest of the city. The infrastructure is older, the building stock is denser, and, the centralized hubs of medical and social services serve whole regions. We access and use downtowns in unique ways that reflect our desire for walkable streets and a unique experience.
Downtown Fargo is indeed different in all of these ways. Its streets, buildings, infrastructure, and key role in representing a growing region all call for specific attention focused on Downtown, now. Downtown InFocus is intended to take a closer look at what makes Downtown tick and then to develop ideas to help Downtown overcome its challenges and capitalize on its assets.
This plan will translate the vision of our residents and businesses into tangible action steps to further improve downtown fargo. in short, this plan will serve as the roadmap for how downtown will evolve in the coming decades.
We have done a lot of talking, listening, and learning since the project got underway in July 2016. Step one in this process was to ask questions collect data about Downtown and the City around housing, transportation, parking, open space, infrastructure, retail, services, the arts, jobs, social services, and more.
At the start of 2017, Downtown InFocus transitioned from data collection and analysis to crafting a vision for the future grounded in the voice of the community and developing strategies for change that echo your hopes for Downtown. The planning team shared draft strategies at a second public Open House hosted during Frostival 2017 and then presented refined strategies at a big public meeting in May.
Next, the planning discussion shifted from WHAT should happen Downtown and WHERE to HOW can the City and its partners make such changes happen. All of the work is documented in a plan for Downtown and a playbook for redesigning Downtown’s streets. Drafts of both documents are ready for review. Please take a look!
Check here for past presentations and current updates
What’s your experience of Downtown Fargo? How would you like Downtown and nearby neighborhoods to change or stay the same? What are your ideas, big and small? We want to know.
Why? Input from you and your neighbors, family, and friends will form the cornerstone of Downtown InFocus and our collective vision for the future and roadmap to guide change in Downtown. Your creativity and participation in this forward-thinking planning process will elevate awareness and excitement about Fargo and help create the best outcome for the plan. Downtown Fargo needs a vision and action plan driven by those most familiar with the issues and opportunities facing Downtown. Your local knowledge is essential to help strengthen local culture, promote the local economy, accommodate new investment and ensure a diverse, inclusive Downtown.