What’s your idea for the City of Maryville?
That’s been the question city leadership has been asking residents as it works on its Comprehensive Plan for the next twenty years, which will plot city growth and priorities through 2045.
That process kicked off earlier this year when the city launched a website to push out surveys and gather public feedback. It has continued with a series of public events. At one such workshop, held on Sept. 3rd, city maps were laid out on tables in the city’s Public Safety Building on Vine Street. Community members browsed display boards and spoke with staff from RDG Consultants, a design firm hired by the city to lead the planning effort.
City Manager Ryan Heiland, in attendance at the event, said planners and city staff have increasingly focused on different areas to redevelop in the Maryville. One of those: the section of Main Street between the historic downtown and the South Main Street commercial corridor.
“It’s an important corridor but it’s gotten aged out a little bit,” he said. The planning process has involved “reimagining [that corridor,] which could become a connecting piece between downtown and the main commercial corridor” to the south.
“That’s the balance we’re looking at: tying in those businesses that would benefit from being close to our major retail area,” Heiland continued.
Following up via phone after a week of workshops in Maryville, Amy Haase, who is the design principal with firm RDG consultants, which is leading the project for the city, said there are all sorts of opportunities to revive that midtown area.
“[We’re considering] infill, adding housing, mixed-use things on underutilized sites,” she said, and “continuing the greening and streetscape we’ve seen on South Main – continuing that up into downtown.”
Inevitably, Haase adds, housing has come up as an issue.
She worked on Maryville’s last comprehensive plan, adopted in 2012. Some demographics had few housing options in the city back then, and those gaps continue.
In a city dominated by student rentals and single-family homes, young professionals lack good options, Haase observed. “These folks are not ready to buy a home yet. There are some pretty good jobs around Maryville, and they can afford to rent something that’s in nice shape -- decent quality. That market point has been missing. We heard that in 2012 and it’s only risen to the top as a bigger issue,” she said.
Creating those options could support employers in a city that is hungry for young, skilled, workers.
When it comes to specific areas for possible housing planners are looking at the undeveloped areas east of South Munn Av., and considering a mix of residential and agricultural uses.
“It could be a different way that the community is designed to allow for more open spaces for agricultural uses,” Haase said. “But it could also have an aspect of communal agriculture.” All that is speculative, she noted.
The planning team will soon move on to the drafting phase, aiming to present an initial plan early next year. But Heiland urges area residents to engage before time is.
“When I’m saying we want your input, we mean that,” he said. It will be important “as we develop in the next twenty years.”
Learn more at Maryville2045.com.
