This letter is from four of the five members of the Town of Walden Land Use Committee. The one member of the committee not represented in this letter is a currently serving Alderman on the Town Board and we will respectfully defer to her to communicate her perspective. The upcoming election has an Walden Alderman position on the ballot. Part of each candidate’s platform, along with other mountaintop citizens’ letters to the editor, appear to address the Town Center Zone of the Land Use Plan. In this letter, we would like to provide an overview of the Land Use Plan process and key details regarding the Town Center.
The current Land Use Plan replaced a more than 20-year-old plan from the late 1990’s. An updated plan was long overdue as Land Planning professionals and most surrounding states recommend updates every five to 10 years.
The Town of Walden Board appointed a Land Use Committee in February 2020. The town established a budget for the process. The committee drafted a Request for Proposal (RFP) that was approved by the Town Board for the selection of a professional Land Planner to lead the town through the public process. A firm was unanimously approved by the Town Board in January 2021.
The town selected Common Ground Urban Design + Planning from Franklin, Tn. The firm worked with the Land Use Committee and led all public meetings. A public kickoff meeting was held March 4, 2021, followed by focus groups led by the consultant with various stakeholder groups including owners of property along Taft Highway, non-profits, government officials, and many longstanding residents. The consultant toured Walden, visited our public spaces, and learned of our history and culture to inform the plan.
A well-attended charrette was conducted at the new Walden Fire Hall on May 15, 2021, which captured public input followed by other opportunities with the consultant and committee. During this process all residents showed support for Walden's non-profits, our open spaces, and our parks. The residents spoke to improving our walkability by slowing traffic and creating paths. The community agreed on ensuring our drainage and creeks remain pristine. And all residents showed support for not making changes to our core residential zones.
The draft plan was presented to the public on Oct. 7, 2021. The Plan was approved by the Regional Planning Commission on Jan. 10, 2022. The Town Board unanimously approved the Land Use Plan on March 8, 2022. The entire process took more than two years.
Illustrations used for example and inspiration, not firm site plans, in the Land Use Plan showed a blend of building types in the Town Center primarily west of Taft Highway near Timesville Road including connected residential properties, like townhomes and amassed, connected retail space. The committee voiced that the amassed retail space should present the aesthetic of small town America with varying facades to mimic different connected buildings, even if it was one larger retail space internally. The plan states, “Buildings should have smaller footprints or resemble buildings with smaller footprints to minimize their mass.” The plan addresses this further with “Concerning the details of buildings, articulation and transparency are important. Articulation is the use of elements such as slight shifts in the building facade or the use of openings to reduce the mass of a building.” Nowhere in the plan’s discussion of the Town Center regarding retail space is a maximum square footage mentioned (see pages 28 and 60).
After the plan was approved by the town, and before zoning ordinances were updated to adjust for the insights of the new Land Use Plan, town leadership asked the Land Use Committee to provide its perspective on maximum square footage for commercial space in the Town Center. Members of the committee considered that they did not want to tie the hands of future town leadership and to allow the soon to be established Walden Planning Commission and elected officials to evaluate development proposals in front of them and decide what is right for Walden at the time. For commercial buildings in the Town Center, the Land Use Committee voted at the Nov. 11, 2022, Land Use Meeting unanimously that buildings could be 5,000 square feet by right and by special permit above 5,000 square feet with no maximum square footage with approval of the Town Board. With our work done as a committee this was our last meeting and the committee disbanded.
Likewise, the new Walden Planning Commission, charged with recommending new zoning specifications for the Town Center, voted overwhelmingly to not establish a square footage cap on commercial buildings within the Town Center. Yet when the ordinance came before the Town Board, two of the members voted to establish a 15,000-square-foot maximum including the candidate for re-election.
We believe that it is impractical for a 15,000-square-foot store to anchor and kickoff the development of Walden’s Town Center. A series of small shops is unlikely to incentivize a developer to put in the infrastructure and community space that comes with the Town Center. We need a significant retailer to catalyze the development of the blighted west side of Taft Highway. It has been over a quarter of a century since the previous Land Use Plan that envisioned a Town Center and still we have no revitalization along Taft Highway.
Citizens of Walden appreciate our low property taxes, but as the town budget gets tighter between revenue and outflow, the town will have to look somewhere for additional revenue. Revenue from a vibrant Town Center could help avoid property tax increases.
Further, a square footage cap does not safeguard Walden from bad development. There are unattractive retail establishments that could comply within that square footage cap. Would we not rather work with a developer who has to jump through the hoops of a special permit to ensure that we have control of a development that makes the town proud?
As you consider your vote for Walden Alderman, we encourage you to review the Land Use Plan on the town website and to drive by the blighted Taft Highway corridor and then vote for the candidate who is whole-heartedly supportive of establishing an attractive Town Center for Walden.
Dawson Wheeler
Sarah McKenzie
Andrew Hausler
Steven Bush