Vision Fairbanks: a blueprint for downtown redevelopment.

• Author: Stricker, Julie
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: BUILDING ALASKA

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After several years of record construction seasons, 2010 has been downright quiet in Fairbanks. No big new projects showed up on the books at the City of Fairbanks Building Department, says building official Steve Shuttleworth, a far cry from a couple of years ago when a building boom reshaped Fairbanks' retail district on the north edge of town and added a major bank headquarters and the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center downtown.

About $40 million in permits have been approved in the city in 2010, well below the average for the five-year period between 2003 and 2008 when more than half a billion dollars worth of construction was permitted.

CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY

That doesn't mean nothing is happening. Shuttleworth calls 2010 a "camouflage year," in which several long-term projects are in the final stages of completion or deal with infrastructure instead of buildings.

The most visible is a new bridge over the Chena River at Barnette Street. The bridge is part of the Illinois Street Project, which was first proposed in the 1970s. While final designs haven't been approved, downtown businesses are watching the project closely. Revitalizing downtown is a long-term goal for the community, says David van den Berg, executive director of the Downtown Association of Fairbanks.

"A lot of community values are served by having a more vibrant downtown," says van den Berg, "If our downtown is more attractive to more people, that boosts community recruitment."

In 2008, the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly adopted Vision Fairbanks, a blueprint for downtown redevelopment, as part of its Regional Comprehensive Plan.

REVITALIZATION EFFORTS

Vision Fairbanks is an outline that seeks to lay the groundwork for economic development by developing the zoning and infrastructure to attract business and customers without taking away the qualities that make Fairbanks unique. It all begins with infrastructure, says van den Berg, whose office is in the same building that houses the Fairbanks City Museum.

The plan calls for improved roads, better landscaping, on-street parking and better pedestrian and bicycle access. Zoning changes encourage retail businesses on the first floors of the buildings--with big windows to draw in shoppers--and professional offices above.

Van den Berg is encouraged by a recent trickle of development. Several boutiques selling clothing, gifts, artwork and more have opened downtown. An artists' co-op has...