Proposed master plan envisions major changes in downtown Havre

Representatives from High Plains Architects held the last of their public meetings on Havre’s soon-to-be-completed Downtown Master Plan, where they discussed the contents of the plan and heard comments and questions about the plan.

High Plains President Randy Hafer presented the contents of the plan, which is designed to revitalize the downtown area of Havre and has been in development for years.

Hafer said at this point the plan is basically done and after the meeting they will take all that is said under advisement for the development of the final draft, which will be sent to Havre City Council for approval.

He said the plan outlines a number of improvements that can be made to the area that will draw more people in, make the area much more walkable, and stimulate the local economy, which downtown should be the center of.

Hafer said one of the key ways to make downtown thrive is to make it walkable and the plan includes two big suggestions for how to do that, suggestions that meeting attendees did not take to universally.

One was to alter a 3-block section of Highway 2 in Havre — First Street — to be two lanes with a designated turning lane as well as a median and bulbouts — curb extensions into the street — which will not only make the area more visually attractive, but make crossing the street much more pedestrian-friendly, he said.

He said the street is a bit of a nightmare to cross for pedestrians and this alteration will make the area a lot more walkable, which is critical to a downtown area.

He said the Montana Department of Transportation may not be fully on board with such an alteration, as they are more concerned with making sure vehicles get from one point to the other as fast as possible, but while Highway 2 is a highway, the section in downtown Havre really should be treated as a city street instead.

Hafer said bulbouts and a median means pedestrians have less road to cross, which is less stressful, and these structures can have grass and plants in them, creating more greenspace, which is a major goal of the plan.

Some people attending the meeting raised concerns that this alteration would create trouble for larger rigs and agriculture equipment getting through the area, as well as constricting traffic.

Hafer said, even with the alteration, there would be ample room for most vehicles, and, based on their experience with similar alterations, all it would do for traffic is slow vehicles down to the speed limit that’s already in place.

While many people in the audience were supportive of this alteration, others expressed skepticism, including Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson, who said he’s still concerned, but encouraged everyone to look at the proposal with an open mind.

Signage, business appeal and less parking

Another big goal of the plan, Hafer said, was to alter the facades of the buildings in the areas to match the quality of the business in those buildings.

He said as they’ve explored Havre they have, many times now, found incredible businesses that are being held back by the look of their buildings from the outside.

Sometimes businesses are difficult to find just because the building’s exterior doesn’t provide a good indication of what’s going on inside, and there are two big ways to fix that.

One way, Hafer talked about was to just improve signage in general, and consider making use of more blade signs that will run perpendicular to the road, which can be a huge help for people newly in town.

He said signage is really important because they want people coming into the area for the first time to have as easy a time as possible getting to where they need to go, frustration free.

On the other side of the coin, he said people passing through should see what all these incredible businesses are doing and be drawn into the area, which makes them want to stay.

He said one thing that can be done is to make storefronts more transparent, so people can easily see what is going on inside.

Another thing Hafer said people should do is consider removing a lot of the additions that were made to buildings that covered up their original facades, facades he said created a great amount of character to the buildings and made them unique and aesthetically attractive.

He said these kinds of things are certainly not free, but they are doable and will make a huge difference without having to tear things down and start over, preserving the town’s visual history.

“We don’t need to tear everything down,” he said. “We don’t need to tear anything down, we just need to clean some of these buildings up. … All the pieces are already here.”

Hafer said one thing he’s learned from his years creating plans like this is that huge improvements can be made through a series of relatively small changes, not massive projects.

“It’s not about hitting home runs,” he said. “It’s about getting on base.”

Another element of the plan that caused some consternation was using parking space for other things.

Hafer said in the downtown area there is one parking space for every four people of driving age in the city and that’s just on-street parking, and that is way too much.

He said downtown areas are supposed to be walked in and through, instead of what most people currently do, drive to one store then leave.

He said they want people to stay downtown and walk around seeing all the great places to shop, which will create a thriving economy.

The contention that Havre has too much downtown parking also drew some skepticism.

Hafer said when Billings started putting up apartments in their downtown area that was a big concern there as well, but it turns out it was really a non-issue for the people looking to live there.

He said people that want to live in downtown areas just don’t have parking as a big priority, and are willing to park a ways away, because they’re content to walk most places.

Downtown housing

Indeed housing was another priority in the plan, and another element that some attendees pushed back on.

Hafer said having people living downtown is a big priority in their eyes, because it creates markets for businesses to come into the area.

He said his team estimates that downtown Havre has about 120,000 square feet of second-story space being completely unused, and a lot of that could be made into apartments.

He said if a few business owners decide to get the ball rolling and use that space to get people living downtown, that will be a great first step to revitalizing the area.

Some raised concerns about the costs involved with setting up such housing, but Hafer said he thinks there are business owners who see the potential to make apartments work, and not high-end expensive apartments, but ones that are accessible to most people economically.

Doing this, he said, gets potential customers for all kinds of markets into the downtown area, and businesses to fill those markets will naturally follow, as they’ve seen happen everytime they do this in other areas including Billings.

“You can’t have a coffee shop if there’s no one to drink the coffee,” he said.

One audience member asked what age demographics they got in Billings when people started living downtown, and Hafer said they had people from all demographics, except families with school-age children, it was not just 20-year-olds.

He said the family unit of a husband, wife and multiple children is just not as common, with many people living independently, which means downtown properties have a huge, and, in this case, untapped market.

One audience member said he doesn’t think comparing Havre, which is economically struggling, to Billings, which is booming at the moment, is a good comparison.

Hafer said he’s not comparing current-day Havre to current-day Billings, but current-day Havre to 1995 Billings, when they started their efforts to revitalize that city’s downtown area.

He said scale and population are not as big a factor as people may think, and he sees countless parallels between downtown Havre and 1995 downtown Billings, which was struggling as much as Havre is right now.

Hafer also talked about other things, like improving access to the Milk River for recreation, expanding Town Square, and rewriting the zoning ordinances, which he said just don’t make sense for the area.

He said the zoning for downtown was written in 1962, by someone who clearly did not know what they were doing, which he said was pretty common for the ’60s and ’70s, so those really need to be rewritten.

Some in the audience raised concerns about how to fund some of these changes, and Hafer said having a plan like this in place, especially if the city council adopts it, will help them get grants to pay for some of these things, and will make bargaining with Montana Department of Transportion much easier.

Some also raised concerns about liability and maintenance costs for the trees they want to put in the sidewalks of the area, but Hafer said a lot of that depends on how the city decides to proceed with these plans should they adopt it.

While many in the audience had questions and concerns, the general attitude toward the plan was positive.

The most vehement critic of the plan was Highway 2 Association President Bob Sivertsen, who said he doesn’t believe anything in the plan will improve the local economy and the city should instead push for Highway 2 to be expanded to four lanes across the state, increasing traffic and people coming to and through the region.