The city of Plymouth Minnesota is a thriving third-ring suburban community with a population of more then 80,000 people, making it the state's seventh largest city. One of the City's key strategic priorities is to redevelop and revitalize the geographic heart of the city into a walkable, vibrant, and pedestrian-friendly downtown. The City and its residents are focused on making changes that will keep and grow attraction for people to come into City Center to live, work, and play, shop, and eat.
CDG worked as part of a multi-disciplinary project team to develop a new vision for Plymouth's City Center. CDG's work included both high level and detailed recommendations focusing on urban design, street network development and connectivity, pedestrian and bicycle circulation and safety, and public realm / sense of place.
The plan was adopted with wide community support and has moved apace toward implementation. Most recently, the City has completed work for the redesign of Plymouth Boulevard (the spine of City Center), has updated its housing ordinance to allow the types of housing discussed in the the plan's vision, and completed a new set of design standards to provide detailed guidance for implementing the changes envisioned in the report - including improved crossings for pedestrian safety, trail connectivity, and roundabouts to calm vehicular traffic. These improvements will help create spaces for public art and food trucks, install an improved entry and wayfinding for the Hilde Performance Center, and open up new seating and gathering areas along Plymouth Boulevard, among other significant improvements.