CHANGE UP. Menomonie’s Mixed Use Redevelopment Strategy Steering Group is planning more meetings to get input on where to take their downtown area.

There is a trend, a movement across the land, to revitalize, reclaim, and reconnect to what was once the heart of every community – it’s downtown. Downtowns are rising up. Folks want a thriving, lively, and healthy downtown to shop, work, and play in. Last fall Menomonie community members and organizations initiated a dialog to recreate their downtown and “The Mixed Use Development Strategy” stepped into action with strong support from Menomonie-area residents.

“It has been an interesting process hearing from community members and it will be good to hear more.”

A series of meetings sponsored by the Mixed Use Redevelopment Strategy Steering Group, which comprises city, county, and UW-Stout officials, plus downtown business owners, has helped catalyze a bevy of innovative ideas from the community in an effort to develop a plan to revitalize downtown. The Steering Committee’s simple but sobering objective is to identify the best use and best plan for downtown Menomonie through community input.

Greg Lentz of WESTconsin Credit Union, who has been involved with this project since its inception, says, “It has been an interesting process hearing from community members and it will be good to hear more.” Greg also went on to say, “It has been very positive working with LBH (a contracting firm from Minneapolis), who has taken the refreshing and individual approach of determining what’s the best for Menomonie as opposed to, say, a cookie cutter approach.”

At the two meetings held last autumn, a truckload of ideas, themes, issues, and challenges were expressed, bantered, pondered upon, consolidated, and … voila! The following transforming prospects to date await Menomonie:

The Ideas/Suggestions
indentified by Menomonie residents via redevelopment input meetings

   • Create a pedestrian mall or outdoor gathering space by temporarily or permanently closing streets
   • Construct pedestrian/bike trails through downtown and around lake
   • Reorganize parking, perhaps a ramp
   • Develop events and marketing around local history and the arts
   • Incubate small businesses to improve retail mix
   • Encourage/enforce renovations and improvements to buildings
   • Decorate with coordinated planters/hanging baskets/etc.

The Challenges/Desires
identified by Menomonie residents via redevelopment input meetings

   • Add/reorganize parking
   • Better manage vehicular traffic
   • Clean the lake & provide more access
   • Improve storefronts and maintenance
   • Adjust mix of business types
   • Add/improve public open spaces
   • Add/improve pedestrian/bike access

The latest news on this project is another community meeting held by the Steering Committee very soon. The committee is eager to continue the dialog and get more input from the folks of Menomonie.

So people, this is your chance to re-create your downtown. So stay tuned, keeping your eyes on the horizon and your ears to the ground … but not at the same time. While this process is pending, LHB is completing the market research and after the next community meeting will make final design and planning recommendations to the committee, revealing the best and brightest plan for downtown Menomonie.

For more information on the revitalization efforts or the report, go to www.uwstout.edu/asls/redev/ or contact Kristi Krimpelbein at krimpelbeink@uwstout.edu or the Menomonie Chamber of Commerce at 235-9087.