BUTTE - Could narrowing some of Uptown Butte’s streets and adding tree-lined boulevards make Uptown more attractive to shoppers? In Butte, a group of Uptown business owners hired a city planning design group to come up with ideas to make Butte more shoppable.
“The vibrancy, walkability, social connectedness, commerce, celebration — all those things that used to happen routinely in your streets, we want to increase that and make it even more vibrant,” Toole Design representative Ian Lockwood said at a meeting in Butte Thursday.
Members of Toole Design spent a week in Butte analyzing the Uptown and then presented ideas to make it more inviting to pedestrians. Members of the Business Improvement District hired the group in an effort to make people want to stay Uptown and shop local.
“It’s not a place to drive through; it’s a place to stop and look around and see shops and restaurants and things that are going on in this area,” Butte Improvement District member Jeff Riggs said.
One idea is to narrow some of Uptown's wide streets to slow down automobile traffic. Adding trees and other amenities would also make pedestrians feel more at ease and want to stay longer.
“We want it to feel safer to walk here; we want to feel like it’s inviting to be on our city streets,” Butte Improvement District member Cassie Wick said.
This is part of the city’s master plan, which recently included adding wayfinding signs. Ideas presented by Toole Design are things for the Uptown Business District to consider over the next 10 years.
One worker at Isle of Books in Uptown said installing more permanent restrooms in Uptown would be helpful.
“That would kind of help keep people Uptown shopping as stuff if they don’t have to go somewhere, especially if they have small kids,” Nicolette Reames said.
