City Administrator Presents Downtown Visioning Results

City Administrator Chris Cotter revealed the results of several downtown visioning meetings and a study conducted by Summit Downtown Inc. to conclude the downtown visioning process.

While some of the results were expected, some came as a surprise to Cotter and the rest of the downtown visioning committee.

For example, out of 872 people who responded to an SDI survey done both online and via paper, 254 said the number one reason they do not shop downtown is because they cannot find parking. The other reasons in the top five included "the stores are not for me," "stores are not open Sundays," "stores are not open late enough," and "I prefer to shop at the Mall at Short Hills."

Yet despite the fifth most popular response, the number one town cited when asked where people are shopping was New Providence with 235 responses. Short Hills wasn't even second with Westfield coming in at 226 votes. Short Hills was third with 213 followed by Millburn with 132.

Another interesting report from the SDI study is that 46 percent of respondents said there is adequate parking downtown while 35 percent said there is.

"At minimum we have a real disconnect there," Cotter said.

Some of the stores respondents identified they would like to see more of in Summit are women's clothing stores, more restaurants, a speciality grocery such as a Trader Joe's or a Whole Foods, a fish market or butcher and a book store.

While Cotter said 8 percent of the roughly 160 attendees at the various downtown visioning meetings said store mix should be a short-term goal, other ideas include marketing, branding and a communications strategy, addressing the parking issues, support and coordinate among stakeholder groups, more events downtown, more housing, and more safe pedestrian network and oddly enough, taxes.

One of the things that was identified as a strength of Summit's downtown is it's compact layout and architecture.

"Summit has been described as almost an ideal downtown," Cotter.

Some of the recommendations in the action plan are implementing some of the recommendations from the Desmond parking study which suggested charging for shopper parking, making recruitment and marketing of downtown businesses and full time commitment with full time staff, and encouraging "fast tracking" of permits for temporary art galleries or music venues in vacant retail spaces.

Cotter also suggested exploring closing selected roadways, for example Beechwood Road between Union Place and Springfield Avenue, on certain days in an effort to create a pedestrian mall type of experience and implementing a pilot program to increase hours of operation for downtown businesses.

"I don't feel we need to throw money into the downtown to make it better," said resident Mike Gumport.

Another possible suggestion is to increase floor area ratio to 300 percent, ultimately giving property owners the ability to build up to three stories.

But Gumport expressed concern that increasing floor area ratio would destroy the skyline Summit currently has.

"I love our downtown," he said. "I'm not sure it has so many troubles we need to solve."

Cotter also reported that residents should begin to see progress on the Gateway I project pick up soon.

Another suggestion for consideration was increasing the floor area ratio for downtown to 300 percent from its current