What makes you fall in love with a community? Is it the house? The lawn? The stores? Well, you can have all of the above but have no sense of community unless there is a conscious effort to connect your house with the stores, offices, schools and parks. In a presentation on Tuesday April 29, Dan Burden offered suggestions on ways for Mead to plan ahead so that our town is one where we enjoy spending time.
The Town of Mead hosted a meeting that discussed Walkable Communities and how they can be achieved. Dan Burden presented ideas, suggestions, and methods that can turn Mead (and other communities) into a place where the sidewalks are full of people, where shops are bustling and people want to visit.
Can you leave your house and get to the heart of Mead and stay on a sidewalk or trail the whole way? I can't but it's better than it was 4 years ago. Now is the time to make changes for the future. More houses are going up on Highway 66 and when it's time for them to buy coffee or books or antiques, where do you think they will go? To the heart of Mead? Why should they? But with the right planning and vision, Mead could be a community with heart, soul and accessibility.
The suggestions listed below are affordable, basic and achievable. In order to move in that direction, the values of the town must be established and a vision must be created.
There are several features that add to a walkable community:
1. Intact town center where there are healthy, thriving stores that are open for at least 8 hours per day. There are quiet main streets, with trees and parks and a sense of place.
2. Residential densities with mixed income and mixed use. For instance, many people work in Boulder but the housing market makes buying a home there almost impossible. In Mead, having a range of house prices will allow neighborhoods to blossom and people can afford to live and work in the same community. Also, having houses face open space and parks so that they are watching them. This will give a sense of security and comfort to the neighborhood as the culture changes to awareness and concern for each other.
3. Public Space is accessible by all people and gives a sense of openness.
4. Universal Design where citizens of all abilities can get around the town. Sidewalks, trails, crosswalks, ramps, benches, shades, trees will all add to this sense of comfort equally.
5. The design of the street which includes trees, landscaping, on-street parking and narrow widths keeps the speed to a comfortable pace.
6. The streets and trails are well linked in a grid or connected pattern. This method of using one main street in and out of town cuts down on heavy traffic and makes the community walkable.
7. Scale of the community is walkable and people feel welcome.
8. The town caps the size of the stores so that small independent businesses can succeed and big box stores do not mar the character or personality of the community. Keep on street parking and keep them close to the stores and shops where people congregate.
9. The town is a place where people want to walk and feel safe. Building a shoulder on the road for walkers, cyclists, strollers, wheelchairs to get into the heart of town is part of a walkable community.
In addition to these features, the town, county and new housing developers must get on board. New developments must understand that some changes to their design are in order to make this work. Turning houses toward parks, leaving open areas between houses, including high density housing along with the bigger models, adding connecting trails and keeping the width of the road smaller than normal will help Mead become a walkable community. Having a wide range of stores such as delis, coffee shops, bookstores, services (sewing, bike shops) with a set amount of space ( as a way to deter big box stores) will bring people to the town of Mead. These suggestions are not earth shattering and they will need to have some coding changed but it's worth it to make Mead a place where we want to hang out.
So what do we want to see in the future? Whatever it is, our town council is deciding on it right now. Get involved, stay tuned and help create the vision to make Mead a place where people want to gather, where there is a sense of community and friendship.
A community that has all the features listed above is Prospect, located just south of Longmont. They have shops, parks, open spaces, buildings that face the parks, narrow streets and landscaping. We can learn from them and fall in love with a place that feels wonderful to call home.