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Knight Foundation in Community Building
Knight Foundation in Community Building 2003 Charrette Report The Coatesville final report has been completed and can be viewed in PDF Format. To view it, you will need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader if it is not already installed on your system. The Reader is available for PC, MAC, and UNIX and can be downloaded for free by clicking Adobe Acrobat Reader. Wire-bound hard copies of the report will be available in the near future. The report will also be posted directly from this website in the near future as well. For six days, from October 22 through 27, 2003, a team of 30 multi-disciplinary professionals, graduate students, faculty, and consultants affiliated with the University of Miami School of Architecture’s Knight Program in Community Building worked with dozens of local staff and volunteers and several hundred citizens of the City of Coatesville to plan for the future growth and development of the area. Based on advanced data collection; two pre-charrette visits by team members to meet with local community officials, staff, and citizens; and input during the intensive stakeholder sessions, pinups, and reviews convened during the charrette itself, master plan concepts and strategic imperatives in the areas of policy, design, and management were developed and are documented in this report. Coatesville was selected through a competitive process as the site for the charrette, conducted by the Knight Program. Local sponsors included the City of Coatesville, City of Coatesville Redevelopment Authority, Coatesville Area Partners for Progress, and the Coatesville Main Street Program. The Coatesville Charrette Plan and Report cannot provide solutions for all of the complex social and economic issues that Coatesville’s residents face, but the charrette and this plan continue the community dialog while providing specific proposals, guidelines, and strategies for action. Growth in Chester County has now reached the edges of Coatesville. The time to plan and choose a future course for development is now. Opportunities abound: the natural amenities of the city’s geography and riverfront; a historic main street and rail station; prominently located mill properties available for redevelopment; historic architecture and character; and committed and passionate residents. The charrette was led by this year’s Knight Fellows – an interdisciplinary team of 13 community development professionals from around the country who bring a range of expertise including community development, planning, housing, real estate development, arts management, transportation, architecture, environmental planning, and journalism. The team was headed by Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture and principal in the firm Duany Plater-Zyberk, which has created plans for more than 200 communities worldwide. Plater-Zyberk is one of the founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, a reform movement based on the principles of traditional urbanism that advocates the planning and design of great urban neighborhoods that are walkable, diverse, and economically sustainable, with shopping, civic institutions, parks, and jobs within easy access of residents. A charrette is a community-wide design process in which members of the public are invited to meet with designers and planners and encouraged to participate in workshop sessions and share their opinions and ideas for the future development and refinement of their community – it is essentially a combination of an urban design studio and a town meeting. The goal is to create a plan that is practical and achieves consensus. Coatesville was the third charrette conducted by the Knight Program in Community Building, which is funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The first was held last year in Macon, Georgia. The second was in San Jose, California. For more information about the Knight Program in Community Building, go to www.arc.miami.edu/knight. For more information about New Urbanism, go to www.cnu.org. For information about the City of Coatesville, contact E. Jean Krack, Assistant City Manager/Director, Economic and Community Development at (610) 384-0300. |
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