This report was produced to aid in the City of Cottage Grove’s ongoing economic development efforts to revitalize its growing downtown district. Key tasks of the project involve reviewing background information provided by the project sponsor, gathering and sharing relevant contextual analysis, preparing for public input, and creating a visual preference survey. The context analysis portion of the report presents information on the city’s demographics,
history, land use/zoning, transportation, utilities, and proposed project site. The public input preparation portion of the project includes identifying stakeholders and relevant case studies. Finally, the visual preference survey will act as the project’s final deliverable and will introduce images related to the architecture/style of proposed buildings, density, building heights, amount of open space/streetscapes, and land use.
The project seeks to answer several relevant questions including the following:
● How can parcels of land be strategically developed to align with the community’s
preferences and goals for economic growth?
● In what ways can public participation in the planning and development of downtown
Cottage Grove be enhanced?
● What is the most effective approach for engaging with the local community?
● What innovative approaches to economic development in comprehensive plans have been
observed in other communities, and how might Cottage Grove benefit from adopting
similar approaches?
UniverCity Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu