Downtown Fresno is becoming a place where it makes business sense to develop property, open a store or restaurant, live, or locate an office. The market will continue to respond, bringing more investment and development to Downtown Fresno.

Features of the Downtown Plans

Careful design and land use are critical elements of successful downtown revitalization. Design policies that are not oriented toward pedestrian-friendliness, the restoration and use of vacant historic buildings, a high-density mix of uses, and 24-hour activity can do more to harm revitalization than help.

• Created user-friendly development rules through a new “form-based code” that helps developers design good urban projects from the start, and eliminates haggling that adds extra time, money, and frustration to the development process.
• Set the City’s course for building infrastructure (such as water, sewer, and transit) Downtown, based on where, when, and how densely development is to occur. This vision for development will in turn be guided by economic analysis of Downtown’s ability to support new development and various new uses. Presently, inadequate infrastructure (due to a lack of vision on land use) is a major cause of additional cost and uncertainty for developers.
• Dramatically reduced study times and costs for each individual new project, by assessing the environmental impacts of additional development intensity upfront.
• Determined the future of Fulton through the Specific Plan and, through the accompanying environmental impact report, take the appropriate legal steps to implement the vision that stakeholders and the community adopt.
• Planned land uses, transit connections, and development financing around the High-Speed Train station coming to the vicinity of Mariposa and H Streets, in order to maximize the revitalization potential of this major regional facility.
• Set standards for the design of buildings and streets that create a sense of certainty about the quality of future development and future property values, thereby encouraging greater investment.
• Determined parking policies that maximize the user’s ability to park once and visit multiple Downtown destinations