Visioning Partnership's plan for improving downtown calls for connecting Great Northern with historic town center; improving customer parking, expanding business hours

After 18 months of meetings, focus groups and surveys, the Downtown Visioning Partnership has developed a statement outlining its hopes for the future of Downtown Helena.

With the plan on paper, it's time for the heavy lifting to begin.

At the heart of the effort over the next two years will be the Helena Improvement Society, an on-again, off-again civic organization that's been involved in numorous and varied improvement projects over the last 100-plus years.

The HIS dates back more than a century -- it was first chartered in 1898 with 30 members and counted the formation of Mount Helena City Park among its early successes.

"They organized in order to make visual improvements through planting trees and grass and that kind of thing," said Paul Putz, the city-county historic preservation officer.

This year's iteration of the HIS will include 20 people from a broad cross-section of the community to work with Brooks on the branding and marketing program. McHugh declined to name any members, saying that the entire roster hasn't been finalized yet.

"We're taking the name only, and we're re-creating the group for this project," McHugh said. He's seeking a two-year commitment from people from all across Helena, not limited to downtown, which for the partnership's purposes has been defined as spanning from the Great Northern Town Center to the Firetower.

While the main elements of the Vision Statement are somewhat generic -- "building and retaining an attractive, historic, vibrant and prosperous downtown," with "diverse groups, collectively representing the entire community, working together" -- specific subcomponents deal in specifics. Among them:

n Establishing better connections between the Great Northern and the Historic Downtown;

n Developing long-term parking for downtown workers on the edges of downtown, freeing up more prime parking for customers and visitors;

n Better public amenities, including public restrooms, litter pick-up and added landscaping;

n A preference for locating retail on the ground floor of most downtown buildings (with more extended operating hours) and office and residential uses on upper floors;

n More events in both winter and summer to draw people downtown;

n An increased downtown presence for the city's higher education institutions;

n Improvements in regulations, from zoning and building codes to state liquor licensing, to encourage more investment and improved infrastructure.

Selling the Queen City

Another element of the new vision statement recognizes the need for "developing a strong and unique brand for Downtown Helena, an identity that stands above those of other cities and has broad-based community support."

It's here that Olympia, Wash.-based consultant Roger Brooks enters the picture. Brooks, who completed a brief tourism, marketing and wayfinding assessment of Helena in January, returns this week under a more extensive contract to help develop a marketing plan, complete with a logo and style guide for use by the chamber of commerce, the city and anyone else in town who cares to use it.

Brooks will spend the first three days of the week compiling something of a clandestine community assessment, making his way around town from every angle and determining what works and what doesn't from the viewpoint of a visitor.

"No one will have any contact with him," McHugh said. "He's looking for an outside perspective. It will be a critical assessment, and from that, we will begin to formulate the whole branding concept."

Brooks will then present his findings at a four-hour meeting on Thursday morning at the Lewis and Clark Library. The meeting is free and the public is invited, though seating is limited to the size of the meeting room.

Brooks, who was traveling this week and couldn't be reached for comment, preaches finding something specific about a community as a marketing anchor, something that potential visitors can't get closer to home.

"What do you want to be known for globally?" he asked Helenans in January. He notes that communities throughout the West push their outdoor recreational opportunities, for instance, but those activities are so prevalent they do little to set a community apart.

Roger Brooks will present his findings at a public meeting from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the Lewis and Clark Library.

John Harrington can be reached at 447-4080 or john.harrington@helenair.com.