New Project Will Help Improve Downtown Saginaw
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EmailA $1 million project being conducted by two Michigan State University (MSU) programs in Saginaw County will make downtown Saginaw more attractive and draw more visitors.
Contact: Laura Probyn
EAST LANSING, Mich.—A $1 million project being conducted by two Michigan State University (MSU) programs in Saginaw County will make downtown Saginaw more attractive and draw more visitors, says MSU Extension educator Ruth Miller.
Miller and MSU graduate student Julia Darnton will be helping to improve East Genesee Avenue. Darnton will be working through MSU’s Urban Collaborators program and Extension on this project.
The idea for the project stemmed from an MSU student urban planning project conducted in 2003. The project surveyed East Genesee Avenue and provided possible strategies for improving the area. Saginaw County commissioner Terry Sangster thought the project would greatly benefit the community. He approached MSU Extension to get help on the project.
“East Genesee Avenue becomes part of downtown and desperately needs business development and a plan to improve existing buildings and streets,” Darnton says. “Currently, people tend to come into the city to attend events at the Dow Event Center and Temple Theater but do not spend additional time or money in the city.”
Darnton has been working with members of the community, including the Downtown Development Authority and members of the East Genesee Avenue Business Association, to determine what is needed to enhance the street.
“We hope to bring this community group back together in some kind of organized fashion and put together a specific plan with related tasks to achieve some tangible outcomes,” Miller says. “MSU Extension can bring the expertise from the university and locally put this group back on track so that the community members and leaders within the group can make some progress.”
Darnton has also been looking at maps, aerial photos and information about the properties on the street to figure out who owns what properties and which ones are vacant, and to identify buildings that may constitute a nuisance.
“With the revitalization of this area, there will be an identity, economic development and a visually appealing street,” Miller says.
Urban Collaborators is an interdisciplinary effort supported by Michigan State University Extension; the colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Social Science; the School of Planning, Design and Construction; the provost; and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station.
It is administered through the Urban and Regional Planning Program, which provides graduate and undergraduate degrees in urban planning, and is part of the School of Planning, Design and Construction. To learn more about Urban Collaborators, visit www.ssc.msu.edu/~urp/outreach/urbcollabs.htm.
http://anrcom.msu.edu/anrcom/news/item/new_project_will_help_improve_downtown_saginaw
