Downtown Streetscape and Redevelopment
As noted in the 2006 Comprehensive Plan, the City is committed to redevelopment of Downtown Waupun by encouraging growth, reconstruction and technical assistance where viable. This has been happening with noticeable improvements to downtown facades, demonstrating how property owners and the City can work together to improve the downtown experience. The City now desires to turn its attention toward improving streetscape amenities and redevelopment of some underutilized property for either a community event space or new private mixed-use development.
Downtown Description
Downtown Waupun runs seven blocks along Main Street from State Street to Watertown Street. There are two distinct section of downtown: Historic Core and the Transitional Gateway Edges. The Historic Core section includes turn-of-the-century storefront 2-3 story buildings that are built up against the sidewalk, providing a consistent street wall. The Transitional Gateway Edges cover both the eastern and western edges of the downtown district and includes a mix of uses and urban forms from single-family residential to late 70s/80s single-story commercial buildings to industrial properties.
Plan Objectives
Though the primary focus is on Main Street, there may be other opportunities to include this design palette on other portions of the downtown (on cross streets, Franklin Street, Jefferson Street, etc.). Final design and placement of the streetscape features should be based off this Plan, but may be modified to meet existing conditions. The intent of this planning process is to meet the following objectives:
- Develop a vision to improve the aesthetics of Main Street through streetscaping elements that ties both the Historic Core and the Transitional Gateway Edges into a single Downtown District;
- Further the City’s existing brand (City of Sculptures) with new branding effort (promoting its natural surroundings);
- Bring more “green” to the Downtown; and,
- Envision development and social gathering opportunities in the Downtown, specifically using existing City-owned lands.
