by Frank Lee
operations@thenewsleaders.com
What does the future look like for the residents of St. Joseph? Antonio Rosell will be among the first to know because his business will help shape it.
Rosell is the director of Community Design Group, a consulting firm hired by the St. Joseph City Council at its Dec. 19 meeting to update St. Joseph’s comprehensive plan for the future.
“We specialize in working with communities of all sizes to make improvements that help make communities be better places to live in, to do business in, to visit, to enjoy,” Rosell said as part of his sales pitch to the city council before the Minneapolis-based company was awarded the contract.
He talked at the meeting about the “people-centered, asset-based urban planning, policy and design consulting firm” that began in 2001 and develops “sustainable approaches to mobility and place, specializing in pedestrian and bicycle planning, and placemaking and urban design.”
“We are not remaking the wheel,” Rosell said of the firm’s approach of working with other developers in the community who have a vision of St. Joseph’s future and building upon the successes and advancements in the quality of life in the city.
A comprehensive plan is a guide on how the city wants to develop and re-develop, according to city officials, and it serves as the “framework” for the future of St. Joseph and “provides guidance in the day-to-day decision-making of the city.”
“We go in and we recognize those efforts and try to insert our work with the work that has already taken place in the community,” he said. “We try to join in with other groups of residents, for example, who may already be doing some work related to improving their community.”
Community Design Group’s work, according to its website, is: “to support the creation of humane, interesting, healthful and vital environments that allow our communities to grow and prosper economically, socially, artistically and ethically.”
“We supplement that with a very intense process of engagement with community members,” Rosell said. “We are working with the wheel that a place already has built, and what we try to do to the wheel is maybe add another wheel, some pedals, a frame and maybe we can go on a nice ride together.”
The Comprehensive Plan Selection Committee recommended Community Design Group, which plans to solicit input from seniors, youths, businesses and residents as it relates to the comprehensive plan, according to Rosell, a civil engineer and urban planner.
“We, of course, will have public meetings that are large and typical of engagement, but that is not the centerpiece of our approach,” Rosell said. “Our foundation is taking the meeting to places where people already meet . . . to expand the conversation and bring new voices into the planning process.”
Community Design Group proposes utilizing pop-up workshops, a project website, interactive mapping, social media, design workshops, surveys and more to formulate a vision based on input from the people in the city. The plan will address the future of St. Joseph for the next decade.
“We might set up a table at the supermarket or a community event or at a trail and just ask people ‘What is important to you for the future life of your community? What are the things you value about your neighborhood? What are the things you would like to change about St. Joseph?’” Rosell said.
The comprehensive plan update will take months to complete and will address: vision and goals, demographics, community inventory, mapping, parks, trails and recreation, downtown planning, economic development/redevelopment, land-use planning, housing, sustainability and plan implementation.
A total of four consultant proposals were received that were reviewed by the Comprehensive Plan Selection Committee before Community Design Group was awarded the $60,000 contract at the city council’s meeting on Dec. 19 to formulate the comprehensive plan for St. Joseph.
Council member Matt Killam credited Community Design Group of Minneapolis for “thinking outside the box.” Killam sat on the Comprehensive Plan Selection Committee, which narrowed the field of four proposals by consultants to the two who were interviewed, including Rosell.
“We will have design activities that are very hands-on,” Rosell told the City Council. “We will have people working with Play-Doh and cut-outs to identify locations in your city where they might want to focus some type of development or planning effort.”
In the past couple of years, the City of St. Joseph has allocated a total of $12,000 for the comprehensive plan, and in addition, the city council agreed to allocate a portion of the excess revenue from building permits to help finance the comprehensive plan for St. Joseph.
The project will kick off in January and finish late next year, according to city officials. It will include a core team comprised of a mix of elected officials, business owners, property owners, representatives from the College of St. Benedict and St. Benedict’s Monastery and St. Joseph Township.
