Sweet Home’s business district has both opportunity and pitfalls, a team of specialists from the Oregon Downtown Development Association, reported Thursday.
The team spent three days meeting with merchants, reviewing parking patterns, photographing business facades and developing a plan to improve the retail area of the community.
The $25,000 project was sponsored by the Sweet Home Economic Development Group, Inc., Chamber of Commerce and City of Sweet Home. Spearheading the effort was Karen Owen, economic development coordinator.
“We come into town with a clean slate, no baggage,” said Vicky Dugger, of the ODDA. “We take a look at several areas: the business mix, parking, public spaces, facade development and energy conservation.”
Team members included: Dugger; Mary Bosch, who studied business clusters; Terry Egner, an energy specialist; Tom Bennett, architect; Karen Swarzke, parking specialist and David Dougherty, landscape architect.
The information gleaned from a report that will be issued within 30 days can be important when the community applies for grants and other funding sources for community betterment projects.
Similar projects have already been completed in Toldeo, Warm Springs and Creswell.
Dugger said the basic question asked is, “Who are we? What is our image?”
Sweet Home has no significant historic architecture. Most of the business buildings are plain and harden to the 1950s era.
“The goal is to create a mixed use image for both local residents and tourists,” Dugger said. “The three keys are to rehabilitate buildings, to increase pedestrian traffic and to improve parking.”
Dugger said the community has a list of successes from which to build including the Jim Riggs Community Center, the fire department, the police department, the new real estate office complex, and special events such as the Oregon Jamboree and the Celtic Festival.
David Dougherty said the community’s beautification program already in place is a big plus.
He said downtown sidewalks are somewhat narrow and the lack of pedestrian traffic is noticeable.
Dougherty said trees and other plant screenings should be put into place around local parking lots and the median strips should be extended both east and west in the community.
Dougherty said the downtown area should develop “pocket parks” that encourage people to gather while they shop or browse.
He said “furnishing zones” a park bench, street light and trash receptacle along with shrubbery, should be implemented at several of the parking bulbouts.
He said the East Linn Museum area would make an ideal gateway into the community, perhaps including the Chamber of Commerce and visitors center on the site.
Although locals may believe downtown parking is inadequate, a check of peak parking times indicates it is actually underutilized, said Karen Swarzke.
“At peak times, parking in the downtown core is only at 50% of capacity,” Swarzke said. “We don’t usually get concerned until that number reaches 80%.”
A major improvement would be to mark parking spots on the roadway. Currently most areas are not marked, leading to perhaps three cars in an area that could easily accommodate five.”
Architect Tom Bennett business buildings could have a 1950s roadside theme knitted together with landscaping.
He offered renderings of ways to make buildings jump out, using Cascade Hardware and the Solar Way building as examples.
Energy specialist Terry Egner said that energy savings can be applied directly to a business’ bottom line.
He encouraged business owners to reduce energy waste and said that modern lighting, heating and cooling devices are far more efficient than those of just 10 years ago.
He said key areas to look at include insulated windows, the use of new high efficiency lighting, non mechanical heating and cooling devices, tightly insulated walls.
Mary Bosch said Sweet Home has nine lives and is well into its fifth, which is a major transition from big timber to tourism.
Who are our customers? What do they want? How can Sweet Home respond? How be information be packaged? These are all key questions, Bosch said.
While the name Sweet Home conjures up positive images in one’s mind, empty buildings, poor window displays and a lack of continuity fail to live up to its name.
“It’s easy to see that with your long business district, vehicles are definitely required to shop this community,” Bosch said.
Bosch said the business district could be tightened by moving businesses into the empty buildings in the downtown core area.
Growth is slow but the community is moving forward, Bosch said. She noted a population increase of nearly 500 with a five mile radius of downtown Sweet Home from 2001-2006.
There is a mix of both older and younger residents. 17% of Sweet Home residents are older than 65 and 29% are under age 19.
The community has a retail potential of $94.5 million annually, Bosch said.
“There were 495,689 visitors to Foster Lake last year and Sunnyside Campground had 47,975 visitors,” Bosch said. “The Oregon Jamboree and the Celtic Festival each bring in many people.”
Bosch said the new resort/golf course planned along the Santiam River is expected to bring in 40,000-60,000 rounds of golf each year.
“Most of your market is already here,” Bosch said. “The goal is to get more business from them and to promote the business you already have.”
Sweet Home is filled with well-kept secrets.
She said visitors want the following: unique, one-of-a-kind items; antiques, conventional goods, recreation, apparel.
“You need to think big, be bold,” Bosch said. “There is no magic bullet. The goal is to make it irresistible to stop here.”