At their Tuesday meeting, the Chelan City Council heard results of a survey on Downtown Chelan performed by Beckwith Consultants. The survey asked residents about what they wanted to see improved in Downtown Chelan as part of the Revitalization effort. More than 400 people responded to the survey, which City Adminstrator Wade Farris called a very good response rate for a city of this size. When asked what improvements the residents wanted to see, Farris said, not a lot:
Among the improvements residents most wanted to see were reduced crime such as loitering, shoplifting and vandalism; improving public restrooms, snow clearance and trash collection areas; and decluttering walkway access.
Most of those residents responding to the survey were women, over the age of 45 with two people in their household.
About half of the downtown business and property owners responded to the HDCA survey, the improvements they wanted to see mirrored that of the residents, along with adding parking lot connections, upgrading walkway surface conditions and street trees, and installing wayfinding signage and directories.
Next up in the process is putting together some designs and putting them out for comment.