Panel proposes ideas to generate more business

Delaware State News

DOVER — In and near downtown Dover are ample attractions for potential shoppers and diners, members of a group devoted to revitalizing the Loockerman Street area agreed Wednesday.

The Downtown Dover Partnership board of directors, consisting mainly of government and business representatives, decided a walking tour of museums and historic buildings should be created to draw NASCAR fans camping at Dover International Speedway and other visitors who ordinarily see little of Dover besides Del. 1 and U.S. 13.

In addition, the board decided to develop a campaign to pull in more people from Wesley College and Bayhealth-Kent General Hospital, each located within a few blocks of Loockerman Street. Workers in the many state government buildings in the vicinity would be targeted as well.

The decisions came in a meeting devoted to generating more businesses and more customers over the next five years in downtown Dover.

The board also called for working with city officials to ease the process of opening businesses and developing housing downtown.

Mayor Carleton E. Carey Sr. said the city doesn’t have adequate ordinances to encourage investors to create housing on and near Loockerman Street, whose occupants would provide a built-in clientele for downtown merchants. But that situation could change early next year if City Council adopts a measure to facilitate development of multi-story buildings with businesses on the ground level and homes above them.

Dover’s planning director, Ann Marie Townshend, said she is working with other city officials to make business licensing a smoother process, but many entrepreneurs still will undergo reviews by Dover Planning Commission and all can expect city codes to be enforced.

"It’s making sure what gets built is a complement to downtown," Ms. Townshend said.

Detailed plans to carry out goals set Wednesday are to be hammered out in coming months.

The Downtown Dover Partnership formed this year in a merger of three downtown organizations. Its emergence coincides with city government’s putting new emphasis on economic development, particularly downtown.

Perhaps the partnership’s most prominent achievement was last Saturday’s downtown holiday parade, a first for Dover that drew a few thousand spectators.

The parade brought out-of-towners directly to Loockerman Street, something many other Dover events do not do. Board members agreed they need to capitalize on events held on The Green and elsewhere.

Dover’s annual Festival of Lights began Monday evening, Dec. 1, with a ceremony at City Hall featuring the lighting of downtown Christmas trees, but Ms. Townshend noted that not all Loockerman Street restaurants were open that night. She suggested restaurants begin offering specials on such nights and that downtown stores stay open late.

Other suggestions might be more costly, such as providing transportation downtown for people camping in recreational vehicles during NASCAR weekends.

Some board members said a different mix of stores downtown would be more appealing to existing residents of nearby neighborhoods.

City Councilman Reuben Salters said a small grocery would help. Wesley College President William Johnston said he and his wife would patronize a downtown drug store — if one existed.

Dover officials hear downtown residential uses emphasized

Delaware State News

GEORGETOWN — Dover officials on Wednesday heard some familiar ideas for filling the city’s vacant storefronts.

At a conference called "Turning Downtown Vacancies into Community Assets" at the University of Delaware’s Georgetown-area research center, Mayor Carleton E. Carey Sr. and city economic development officials listened to two experts’ suggestions on attracting businesses to ailing Main Streets. The recommendations largely reflected what Dover already does or is planning to start, said the city’s economic development director, Bill Neaton.

Perhaps the idea pushed hardest by Alan Mallach of the Brookings Institute and John Kromer of the University of Pennsylvania was that of creating more downtown housing.

"People don’t shop where they work," Mr. Mallach said. "They shop where they live."

Dover’s proposed new comprehensive plan encourages "mixed use" development — stores, restaurants and homes in the same blocks, often in the same building — on and near Loockerman Street. A city committee last week endorsed a zoning-law amendment that could clear the way for three such projects.

"People are starting to realize how valuable residential development is to the downtown mix," Mr. Mallach said. Fewer government and business leaders see "reusing a (vacant commercial) building residentially as a failure."

He and Mr. Kromer stressed that vacant buildings should be advertised aggressively to potential buyers and occupants, including in well-illustrated, detailed ads on the Internet.

Mr. Neaton, who is in just his second month as Dover’s first full-time economic development chief, said the city is building a Web site to accommodate such promotions.

And he said he is trying to line up a meeting with Delaware State University’s acting president, Claibourne Smith, in hopes of strengthening ties with that institution. Mr. Mallach urged cities containing universities to make such overtures because universities can provide valuable business insights and perform essential research.

"I think DelState is an asset we’ve underutilized," Mr. Neaton said. "If we can form a partnership with DelState, we’ll be miles ahead."

The conference was sponsored by the Delaware Economic Development Office as part of what Diane Laird, a state specialist in small business, said is an effort to build a network of key participants in downtown development. About 50 people, mostly from Kent and Sussex counties, attended.

One Downstate town got special attention. A portion of the event focused on Harrington, where the imposing former People’s Bank and other downtown buildings are vacant.

Harrington Vice Mayor Cheryl Lahman said Harrington has been ignored by customers at the thriving Midway Slots casino south of the town. Mr. Kromer suggested opening a coffee shop to appeal to people who accompany gamblers to the casino but don’t want to spend hours there themselves.

But he and Mr. Mallach emphasized that providing more apartments downtown is vital to attracting significantly more businesses, especially since Harrington isn’t a particularly wealthy community. Ms. Lahman said its median household income is about $31,000.

Audience suggestions included starting a farmers market and providing shade on bare sidewalks. Ms. Lahman said funds have been secured to plant trees.

For Harrington, Dover and thousands of other communities, help might come from an unlikely source — the current financial crisis.

Mr. Kromer said downtown living may strike an increasing number of Americans as more inviting than coping with a huge mortgage in a distant suburb where every shopping trip requires the consumption of high-priced gasoline.

More ‘mixed use,’ end to brain drain among goals

Delaware State News

DOVER — The city soon may have a plan to make Dover a healthier, more prosperous place to live and work.

The proposal, drafted by city staffers following a series of public meetings this year to hear residents’ visions of the future, aims to reduce the air pollution spawned by heavy reliance on automobile travel, accelerate the revitalization of downtown Dover and attract jobs that keep young adults from moving to more favorable opportunities elsewhere.

"The Dover Plan, From the People — For the People," could be adopted early next year by City Council, creating an official version of how growth should occur through 2013.

First, though, residents will have two opportunities to say whether the plan reflects their desires. Public hearings are scheduled for 7 p.m. Dec. 2, and 6 p.m. Jan. 5 at City Hall.

The 189-page document is available at cityofdover.com and may be inspected in book form at Dover Public Library and City Hall.

"The Dover Plan" departs from similar plans — the most recent was passed in 2003 — by responding aggressively to climate change, said City Councilman Eugene B. Ruane. It calls for substantial economic development, both commercial and industrial, coupled with attempts to limit Dover’s contributions to global warming.

"Green" industries would be sought. The long-vacant, 389-acre, city-owned Garrison Tract on White Oak Road, for instance, would be marketed as a site for alternative-energy plants and for technological and manufacturing facilities that would exploit the energy produced there.

"Mixed-use" downtown development — housing and businesses in the same block, often in the same building — would be promoted. The idea: Provide the new homes’ occupants — and existing residents — with ample shopping, dining and entertainment opportunities within walking distance. Not only could that boost the downtown economy, but also reduce residents’ automobile travel and its resultant contribution to climate change.

"I would encourage people to see those connections," said Councilman Ruane, who retired as a planner with the Delaware Department of Community Affairs and has closely followed the drafting of "The Dover Plan." "As you implement one policy, you affect another."

With the economy staggering, however, accomplishing much of the plan might prove difficult.

"I guess the challenge is seeing we have the resources in place to get it done," Councilman Ruane said. "My concern is that we will raise expectations to a level we can’t meet."

But "The Dover Plan" has garnered at least one glowing review. That came from the Delaware office that oversees planning by cities, towns and counties.

"The Office of State Planning Coordination would like to commend the city of Dover for a very well done comprehensive plan," David Edgell of that office wrote. "The plan document and (an accompanying) map series are very extensive and represent a detailed vision for the future growth and development of Dover."

City Planning Director Ann Marie Townshend, who headed the creation of the new plan, said one subject of the document sure to gain attention is annexation. "The Dover Plan" calls for continued efforts to expand the cities’ boundaries to include nearby areas, especially those whose residents buy city water and electricity but enjoy other city services, such as parks, for which they are not taxed.

"We’re essentially looking," Ms. Townshend said, "to round out the edges and fill in the holes."

The holes, formally "enclaves," are spots within Dover that never became part of the city itself. The city grew around them.

More than a half-dozen enclaves exist within Dover. They include a number of small areas as well as Kentwood Mobile Estates and Dupont Manor, adjacent housing developments off U.S. 13 north of Dover Mall.

No area may be added to a municipality unless a majority of voters there agree to the move.

Enticing property owners in enclaves to join the city might be easier, Ms. Townshend said, if tax incentives were offered. The city, for instance, could agree to impose no property tax on a parcel until it is sold, thus sparing current residents from helping to pay for services such as police patrols.

Some out-of-town properties also are cited as potential annexation targets, including one of Kent County’s more prominent subdivisions, Rodney Village. But Rodney Village residents, long accustomed to independence, may not like the idea.

"There’s no real advantage to them to annex," Ms Townshend said, noting that residents already have access to Dover electricity, water and sewage treatment. But if "The Dover Plan" wins state certification, as expected, the city would be the state-endorsed municipality to which Rodney Village would be expected to turn if it sought to join an incorporated community.