The “Click, Learn, Go, Get: Framing the Marketplace” breakout event for the Columbus 2050 initiative took place on August 5^th at The City in 2050 exhibit space in Easton Town Center. Throughout the event, local experts discussed and identified priorities for retail development in Central Ohio.  The following input gathered during the event will be used to inform a long-term strategic vision for Central Ohio and a publication that will be used to guide regional decision-making.

The event began with presentations by local experts in retail development. Presenters included Bill Dargusch of Metropolitan Partners and Chris Boring of Boulevard Strategies. Highlights from these presentations are shown in the following video:

After the presentations, participants engaged in roundtable discussions and generated the following responses:

What do we hope to accomplish with our marketplaces by 2050?

(Note: for this discussion, participants wrote down their responses on notecards that were voted on later by the entire group.  The number of votes is listed beside each response.)

• Public transportation that the general population would use (6 votes)
• Place-based unique retail like the Short North galleries, cafés, etc (4 votes)
• Get away from the 5-year retail obsolescence building/abandonment cycle (4 votes)
• Business mix for diverse opportunity: mix of spaces, mix of cost, mix of business models (4 votes)
• Mixed-use development: diverse land use, connected mixed-use, accessible by foot, car, transit (4 votes)
• Create adaptable marketplaces with zoning considerations that allow flexibility (4 votes)
• iPad-focused retail: see it in real life and order electronically (3 votes)
• Convenience/Balance/Stability (3 votes)
• Ideal marketplace: sense of community, physical experience, diverse offerings, accessibility (3 votes)
• Create an urban experience, not a consumer experience (2 votes)
• Stability: matching local demand with local supply closing glut of excess and vacant retail space (2 votes)
• Marketplaces must be unique, thus making a destination and experience you don’t get elsewhere (2 votes)
• Community: share ideas and meet people (2 votes)
• Muse be accessible from a transportation standpoint (1 vote)
• Neighborhood artist development and connection with world marketplace (1 vote)
• Convenience and adaptability (1 vote)
• Stability across lifecycles, right-sizing, convenience (1 vote)
• Experiences: new, different, fun, comfortable (1 vote)
• Data: Individual service, neighborhood/community-oriented stocking (1 vote)
• Mixed use context (1 vote)
• Figure out a new tax/fee arrangement that works with e-commerce (1 vote)
• Transparency: inventory, knowledge about products
• Context: immersive experience in community, access to product info
• Focus on distinct neighborhoods and density
• Marketplaces should have diverse offerings for all income levels, drawing a diverse population
• Accessibility: online and in person (mix and match)

What are potential impediments to reaching those goals?

• Building codes
• Zoning codes, especially regarding parking
• Policy and code restrictions
• Democracy
• Corrupt political process: developer/zoning attorney contributions to political campaigns
• Transportation: parking conflicts and public transit options
• Oil/auto dependency: barriers to mass transit roll out, parking
• Short-sighted financial institutions: risk-averse banks
• Fear of risk taking
• Lack of transportation options
• Sprawl
• City schools
• Housing markets: retail follows rooftops
• NIMBYism – lack of community support
• Taxes (hard to compete with internet)
• Tax policy: income v. sales
• City doesn’t care about retail: increase parking meters without merchant input, sidewalk codes, low retail wages
• Lack of leadership to coordinate conflicting interests (ex: .com v. downtown retailers)
• Ability to think and act outside of the box
• Political will to change status quo (x2)
• Resistance to change (x2)
• Current codes restrict “new”/old mixed-use approach
• Patience with slow “authentic” growth and development
• Ingrained allegiance to current tax and fee structures that inhibit new ways of doing things, for fear of loss of revenues
• Lack of support and capital for small artists, artisans and entrepreneurs
• Lack of public transportation (access)
• Limited funding
• Competition with online marketplace (.com versus brick)
• Crime
• Housing policy
• Cheap material used in commercial developments limits useful life of buildings
• Length of time needed for development (forecasting errors, funding)
• Lack of regional collaboration
• Popularity/success –> property values increase –> rent increases –> diversity of businesses goes away

What specifically must we do over the next 39 years to reach our goals?

• Find a funding source to advance public transit to make areas of region more accessible to everyone
• More retail like Easton downtown
• Create more mixed-use developments
• Create diverse gathering places
• Make light rail happen
• Change zoning’s building and safety codes to allow mixed uses to be built economically
• Create tax and fee structures that incentivize creative- and technology-driven marketplaces without “mud wrestling” over revenues
• Create artist/artisan/entrepreneur incubators in key neighborhoods with electronic access to the world marketplace
• Create incentives for long-life buildings and disincentives for “throw away”, short-life buildings
• Disincentivize big box development
• Change the way people see the marketplace
• Restructure land use planning
• Change incentive structure to include retail
• More regional planning: reduce competition between municipalities and townships
• Have a unified government regulatory body/code (consolidate)
• Improve transit options
• Fix inner city school system
• Regional education system
• Form partnerships (public, private, nonprofit) targeted at specific goals
• Plan and prioritize
• Nodes/clusters of development: along commercial corridors, walkable (1/4 mile), transit-ready, cultural institutions as anchors (including parks and libraries)
• Provide a great physical experience for customers, while capitalizing on technology and online access to the world marketplace

What is your big idea for communities in the Central Ohio of 2050?

• Invent an urban friendly transportation technology
• Education system: private and charter school vouchers
• The coolest, smartest, best educated, most entrepreneurial, culturally diverse, local foods haven, pedestrian and transit oriented, sustainable and eco-friendly collection of great neighborhoods with great new and old architecture COMMUNITY in the world.
• Less than 20 minutes everywhere by transit
• Internationally recognized transportation system
• Form-based codes
• Comprehensive places of commerce, living, culture and arts
• Connectivity: multi-modal improvements (bus, rail, bike, pedestrian), microscale (within nodes, parks), macroscale (between nodes, parks, etc)

We Want Your Input!

Please leave a comment with your responses to the questions above.