Utah Heritage Foundation

Cedar City started implementing a 5-year downtown revitalization strategy in 1996.  Fourteen years later, stakeholders revisited and updated that plan with the help of the consulting team Hyett-Palma who did the original study through the National League of Cities “America Downtown” program.

Doyle Hyett and Dolores Palma returned to Cedar City the first week of November 2010 to hold a new round of scoping meetings.  The kickoff for the general public on Monday, November 1^st brought out a crowd of about 120 people despite competing with other community events, the final game of the World Series and Monday Night Football.  Utah Heritage Foundation was represented at the meetings by Central and Southern Utah Field Representative Susan Crook, who sits on the board of the Cedar City Downtown Retail Alliance to advise on historic preservation.

In addition to the Downtown Retail Alliance, participants in the series of meetings throughout the week included elected officials and staff of Cedar City Corporation, the Cedar City Chamber of Commerce, Cedar City Brian Head Tourism Bureau, Southern Utah University, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA), Southwest Applied Technology College, and other interested organizations, citizens and students.  In a nutshell, about everyone in the community who cares about the future of Cedar City’s downtown was represented.

Discussions ranged from extending streetscape improvements to rehabbing historic buildings and upgrading a Medusa’s head of electrical lines behind businesses on the west side of Main Street.  Themes revolved around preserving Cedar’s authentic identity by recruiting, incubating, and retaining local Mom & Pop businesses, keeping a mix of retail on Main Street in well-maintained old and historic buildings, and developing a university shopping district on Center Street as a walkable connector to downtown.  Concerns were expressed about how to provide enough shared parking to meet the needs of the Shakespeare Center, SUMA and downtown businesses while encouraging outdoor dining in front of eateries and landscape improvements at the rear of shops.  There was consensus that the Cedar Theatre needs to have its historic façade restored while being rehabbed as a community gathering place, a project that UHF heartily endorses.

These were good meetings full of ideas, optimism, and suggestions for cooperation among the various stakeholders, and support for the preservation of the authentic historic fabric of downtown Cedar City.  Hats off to the Cedar City organizations, institutions and citizens who enthusiastically participated and to Dolores Palma and Doyle Hyett for facilitating the meetings with humor and professionalism.  UHF looks forward to reading the report and helping Cedar City implement a new round of downtown revitalization initiatives.

Read more in Iron County Today:  Downtown Plan Update in Progress