Planning Excellence Award – Plan Other Than a Comprehensive Plan
Downtown Allentown Development and Urban Design Plan
Goody Clancy, City of Allentown, Nelson/Nygaard, Barry Islett & Associates, CodaMetrics, Zimmerman/Volk Associates
Allentown commissioned this plan in 2014 to provide new direction in response to growth and major investments from the Neighborhood Improvement Zone program. NIZ had catalyzed development of an arena, office buildings, and restaurants, but not new housing or reuse of historic buildings. The plan shows a market for new housing and walkable, mixed-use development. And it makes a case to NIZ administrators to invest in mixed-income housing, particularly in underutilized public property, and employ building form guidelines in projects. To date, the design guidelines were used to refine five major development proposals, a planned parking garage was modified to include housing, and there’s been an increase in events programming in public spaces.
tags: Housing Planning, Mixed Use Development, Urban Design