ULI TAP for St. Helena
Urban Land Institute’s San Francisco District Council (ULI SF) held a Technical Assistance Panels (TAPSs) for St. Helena’s downtown. Jane Lin chaired a TAP Committee in Spring 2023 that also included Nell Selander, John Bela, Noah Friedman, Jim Heid, Paul Peninger, Edith Ramirez, and Mariana Ricker.
The panel advised on the revitalization of the city’s downtown, including tools for redefining St. Helena’s brand, placemaking and reimagination of Main Street and side streets with a mix of uses, and prioritizing several opportunity sites.
The report includes recommendations on revitalization and placemaking to enhance both the resident and visitor experience, suggestions for the redevelopment of four opportunity sites, and a decision-making process to prioritize implementation.
The final TAP report was recently published along with a press release from the City, which were all presented in a Webinar.
In addition to this TAP, Frank Fuller serves as the Co-Chair of the ULI-SF TAP Committee and Urban Field partners Jane Lin and Ryan Call also served as panelists on the Downtown Dublin Retail District TAP and as advisors on the Dublin SCS Property TAP. See all the past ULI-SF TAPs to learn more.
An update from Maya De Rosa, Community Development Director, City of St. Helena on progress after the TAP:
We were extremely impressed with the creativity of how our panel re-imagined our Main Street! By recommending removal of the center median it created way for widening our narrow sidewalks to make for a more welcoming and comfortable pedestrian experience; this streetscape plan is going to receive public comment and review in 2024 and inform final construction plans for Main Street
The TAP Recommendation to redevelop a vacant bank building into a boutique hotel resulted in the property owner preparing an application to start entitlement process that was broadly supported by the City Council and community; we are excited to see investment happening so quickly following our TAP!
The TAP confirmed the need for the City to prepare a Downtown Specific Plan which is now underway and will further refine catalytic development sites and study streetscape enhancements beyond Main Street
An unexpected but very welcome part of the TAP experience was the “small wonders” part of the recommendations-these were creative place making ideas that did not cost a lot of money nor require significant effort-we now have our local Rotary Club working on the lighting and art plan for one of the alleys.
Our TAP panel was incredibly impressive; they listened closely to the stakeholders and distilled that feedback with their field observations into a plan to address our specific questions.
