Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 8, 1993 TAG: 9308060026
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-9 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Other localities in this part of the state that have been designated Main Street communities are Bedford, which entered the program in 1985; Pulaski, 1987; and Galax and Radford, 1988.
Tim Pfohl, downtown revitalization planner with the Virginia Main Street Program, outlined requirements for getting into the program to about 25 Wytheville business people on July 29.
Localities must commit local money to hire a project manager and support the administration of a downtown program for at least three years. They must form a downtown revitalization organization funded - ideally, Pfohl said - half by local government and half by private money.
The Main Street program provides technical assistance to designated localities on a contractual basis, from a staff of specialists in economic development, marketing, retaining existing businesses, recruiting new ones and building design.
"Actually, we bring nothing but technical assistance. What we do bring to renovation is free design assistance" for the first three years, he said.
Pfohl said buildings are designed best when they appear as close as possible to the way they originally looked, because that reflects the history of a community and distinguishes it from others. He discouraged trying to create a theme with no ties to a community.
"Be what you are and be aware that you developed at a certain time period," he said. "We're not `wild West' and we're not all Colonial Williamsburg."
Just after World War II, he said, 85 percent of an average community's retail sales were downtown. Now, with the development of shopping malls following the movement of residents to suburbs, it is less than 15 percent.
"So that's a pretty big drop," he said. "The developers are going out to the outskirts of town, where the development is occurring."
Some towns that have tried to imitate shopping centers with pedestrian malls have not realized that economic conditions have changed, he said. Better bets are mixed uses for downtown buildings, such as apartments, restaurants, artists' studios, government offices, minimalls and even some light industry.
Radford has done a lot of redesign work, he said, and its Chamber of Commerce is housed in a redesigned building.
Bedford used a vacant Leggett building to house its county government offices, he said. Wytheville recently lost its downtown Leggett store.
Pfohl warned against localities depending too much on their governments to fund Main Street programs. Fredericksburg and Herndon dropped out of the program when their governments had to cut spending, and Pulaski ran into the same problem.
But Pulaski was able to revive its program. "They've gotten some good things done on about a third of the annual budget they had before," Pfohl said.
Pulaski has focused its downtown revival on antiques stores, which have proved popular elsewhere. "It just seems like everybody's hanging their hat on antiques these days, and that sort of worries me, but who knows? Maybe there is an unlimited market out there," he said.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation started a demonstration program in the mid-1970s that ultimately became the national Main Street program, Pfohl said. It now covers more than 800 communities in more than 30 states.
In Virginia, the program chooses five communities at a time from among the applicants.
by CNB