2007 Red Oak Comprehensive Recreational Trails Plan

I have uploaded the Red Oak Comprehensive Recreational Trails Plan that was created in 2007 by SWIPCO to the downloads section.  You can also click here to see the entire study.  As you can see by the map below, the overall trails master plan includes utilizing existing infrastructure (namely streets and sidewalks) to link the downtown area to the proposed new trails system.  With the current efforts related to public improvements in the downtown, namely streets and sidewalks, now would be a good time to consider what actions should be taken to implement this in the downtown.

Also, below the map, are a few links on planning for bicycle, pedestrian, and recreational trails.

Helpful links:

Cities for Cycling
Association of Pedestrian and Bicycling Professionals
National Complete Streets Coalition
Iowa Department of Transportation
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center
Ride Boldly

2003 Comprehensive Plan

Following up on the post yesterday with the Strategy Plan, I have now posted the Comprehensive Plan from 2003 for all of Red Oak.  You can find it in the downloads section, or also by clicking here.

National Trust grants; applications due Feb. 1

Applications are now being accepted for grants from the National Trust Preservation Fund, the Hart Family Fund for Small Towns, the Johanna Favrot Fund for Historic Preservation, and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund for Historic Interiors. The application deadline for all four programs is February 1, 2012. Guidelines and links to applications can be found at the website below. (Please note: the Hart Family Fund for Small Towns uses the general National Trust Preservation Fund grant application. Grants from the Hart Fund are awarded to projects in communities with populations of 5,000 or less.)
If you have questions about our grant programs, staff in our grants office will be happy to assist you. Any questions can be sent to grants@nthp.org.

http://www.preservationnation.org/forum/newsroom/applications-now-being.html

Recap : Public Improvements Public Input Meeting

Approximately 30 downtown property owners, interested citizens of Red Oak, and community leaders attended the fifth and final public input meeting at 7:00 pm on Monday, November 7th at the Green Hills Area Education Agency Victory Conference Center in Downtown Red Oak.  Daric O'Neal and Mike Thompson with Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture presented concepts and ideas related to Public Improvements in Study Area.  Items discussed included on street parking, off street parking, street conditions, sidewalk conditions, downtown specific signage, utilities, lighting, site furnishings and landscape.  Those in attendance had an opportunity to ask a lot of questions and engage in dialogue related to the subjects.

If you were unable to attend, the presentation can be viewed by clicking here, or it can be found in the "Downloads" section of this web site.

Recap : Redevelopment Public Input Meeting

Approximately 20 downtown property owners, interested citizens of Red Oak, and community leaders attended the fourth of five public input meetings at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, November 1st at the Green Hills Area Education Agency Victory Conference Center in Downtown Red Oak.  Daric O'Neal and Mike Thompson with Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture presented concepts and ideas related to Redevelopment Opportunities in Study Area.  Items discussed including parking, second story housing, vacant or empty lots, and vacant buildings.  Those in attendance had an opportunity to ask a lot of questions and engage in dialogue related to the subjects.

If you were unable to attend, the presentation can be viewed by clicking here, or it can be found in the "Downloads" section of this web site.

Preservation Iowa: Most Endangered Program Deadline

This is a friendly reminder that the postmark deadline for nominations to Preservation Iowa’s Most Endangered Properties program is quickly approaching!  The postmark deadline is November 14th!  While you may not be aware of any properties that should be or are going to be nominated you may have constituents that do know of properties.  Please help get the word out and remind others that the deadline in November 14th.

The nomination forms can be downloaded by going to: http://www.preservationiowa.org/programs/endangered.php.

If there are any questions regarding the process, please contact:

Sheriffa M. Jones
(712) 262-2083
Preservation Iowa, Vice-President

Call for Projects : Iowa Department of Economic Development

CALL FOR PROJECTS - Downtown Revitalization Fund
Recaptured and reallocated funds, when approved by the Director, may be used to fund downtown revitalization projects. IDED will consider funding a project if it meets and addresses the criteria below:

• The project must meet the slum and blight national objective;
• It must be eligible under the CDBG program;
• Positive impact on the community;
• Readiness to proceed with the proposed activity and likelihood that the activity can be completed in a timely fashion;
• Level of community support for a downtown revitalization effort;
• Degree to which downtown revitalization fund assistance would be leveraged by other funding sources and documentation of applicant efforts to secure the maximum amount of local support for the activity;
• Degree to which the activity meets or exceeds the minimum building and site design criteria established by IDED to be eligible for funding;
• Level of planning completed for comprehensive downtown revitalization efforts.

Communities can apply to IDED any time during the year with a pre-application. If IDED determines the community and the proposed activity are eligible for funding, it shall notify the community and invite them to complete a full application which will be due by February. Awards will be announced in May. Pre-applications, instructions, program rules and rating criteria are available on the IDED website.
Communities can meet the national objective requirements one of two ways; either they can complete a city-wide income survey to meet the low-to-moderate income requirement or they can qualify if they meet the slum and blight criteria. Meeting the slum and blight criteria involves the community designating an area as slum and blight using the criteria established by the state, completing a building inventory, and demonstrating how the project would positively affect the area.

A copy of the application can be found here.

Recap : Zoning and Codes Public Input Meeting

Approximately 35-40 downtown property owners, interested citizens of Red Oak, and community leaders attended the third of five public input meetings at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, October 25th at the US Bank Community Room in Downtown Red Oak.  Daric O'Neal and Mike Thompson with Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture and Steve Jensen AICP, ASLA with Steven Jensen Consulting  presented concepts and ideas related to Zoning Overlay Districts, Pattern Books, Form Base Guidelines, and Smart Codes.  Those in attendance had an opportunity to ask a lot of questions and engage in dialogue related to the subjects.

If you were unable to attend, the presentation can be viewed by clicking here, or it can be found in the "Downloads" section of this web site.

Recap : Fountain Square Park Public Input Meeting

Approximately 50 to 60 downtown property owners, interested citizens of Red Oak, and community leaders attended the second of five public input meetings at 7:00 pm on Monday, October 17th at the US Bank Community Room in Downtown Red Oak.  Daric O'Neal with Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture presented concepts and ideas related to Fountain Square Park, it's current and potential uses, the bandstand, war memorials, playground, site furnishings and landscape.  Those in attendance had an opportunity to ask a lot of questions and engage in dialogue related to the subjects.  There were some great ideas that came from this meeting.

If you were unable to attend, the presentation can be viewed by clicking here, or it can be found in the "Downloads" section of this web site.

Main Street Iowa

For those who are interested in learning more about Main Street Iowa, they hosted a webinar a while back that shared how the Main Street program works, the Four Points and Eight Principals of the copyrighted program and numerous examples of Main Street at work all across our state. We want to share the following Main Street Approach® WebEx recording with you.    Whether you come from a small town, from the state’s largest city, or from the hundreds of communities with struggling historic commercial districts, Main Street could be the right tool for your district. Feel free to forward this learning opportunity to anyone in your communities interested in learning more about the Main Street Four Point Approach®. To watch the webinar, click here.

Fountain Square Park Public Input Meeting

When:  Monday October 17, 7:00 pm at the US Bank Community Room.

Plan on attending this community meeting where you can provide your thoughts on the future of downtown Red Oak.  Have and opinion?  Please share it.  Got an idea?  Express it graphically.  Just curious.  Come and listen.  These meetings will be "town hall" style with a little presentation and a lot of interaction, discussion, and sketching of thoughts and ideas.  Everyone will have an opportunity to be heard.

Specific topics for the Fountain Square Park Public Input Meeting includes discussion of items specific to the park itself, including but not limited to the bandstand, park furnishings, war memorials, Red Oak "wall of fame", landscaping and park activities.

October 13th, 2011 Steering Committee Agenda

You can find the agenda for the next Steering Committee Meeting to be held at 6:00 pm, October 13th, 2011 at the Montgomery County History Center by clicking here.

Presentation

In addition to the information available this web site, the actual presentation from the July 28th, 2011 public  meeting can be found at the link HERE.  Please keep in mind while viewing the presentation, that there was a presenter describing the information on each slide.

Public Meeting

On July 28th, 2011 there was a public meeting regarding the proposed downtown improvements master plan.  The meeting started with a walking tour at 6:30 pm in which interested persons could follow and listen to a guided tour of the immediate square and observe some of the existing conditions.  At 7:00 pm, the meeting moved indoors, to the conference center at the Area Education Agency, for a presentation by Daric O'Neal of Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture.    As a result of that meeting, this web site was created to share the information with all interested persons. Please make sure you review all of the pages on this site as well as take the time to complete the on line survey and give us your opinion regarding any of the thoughts presented here.

Birds Eye View of Downtown : North is to the Right