Pedestrian Friendly Pattonsburg

No Walk in the Park

by Chris Kelsey

BNIM Architects

Kansas City, Missouri

The People of Pattonsburg enjoyed the "small-town feel" of old Pattonsburg. In the design workshops held in the fall on 1994, the residents described what they liked about their old town and what they hoped for in their new town. They liked their Main Street and their sidewalks. They liked all the trees and the size of their yards. They liked Ruth's garden and all of the churches. They liked being able to walk to the stores of Main Street and to send their children to school on foot. Most of all they did not want "a subdivision," they wanted a town.

To honor that desire, the design team members worked hard to create a plan for the new community that would offer a similar feel while responding to a new topography. Old Pattonsburg, built in the flood plain, is perfectly flat; its grid street pattern served it well, except when it was under water. In New Pattonsburg, the streets are laid out in similar grid; but this time the grid bends and is discontinuous at certain points to preserve the existing shape of the land and its watershed patterns.

With the new town located immediately adjacent to an interstate interchange, the community wants to take advantage of the passing traffic to boost its economy. Located strategically in the middle of a 32-mile stretch of road with no gas or food services available, New Pattonsburg is poised to provide those services to passers-by. Design team members worked to provide good vehicle access to prepare Pattonsburg for this new economic activity but also wanted the same commercial center to be inviting and comfortable to pedestrians coming from their homes. With a majority of residents over the age of 55, New Pattonsburg had a special need to accommodate their needs for pedestrian access. Additionally, the people of Pattonsburg had almost unanimously asked for a Main Street instead of a town square or a strip mall during the initial visioning session.

The resulting design places the new commercial center adjacent to Missouri Highway C which is used in the design to separate the industrial area of New Pattonsburg from the rest of the city. The commercial center was divided into two buildings that flank opposite sides of the new Main Street which then runs to the south into the residential district. Vehicles from Interstate-35 and Highway C can access the new center form the north side while residential pedestrians are connected via a network of sidewalks from the south. The senior center is located adjacent to south end of the Main Street shopping facilities making easy access for seniors to reach the goods and services they need. Designers also called for lot sizes in the town to be graduated such that they were smaller near the commercial center and larger at the perimeter of the community. The idea was to provide the seniors who needed and wanted less room the opportunity to put their homes near the senior center, the retail buildings and the City Hall. Families, the design team suggested, would want larger lots and would be happy living at a greater distance, still willing to walk to the commercial center. after all, no lot in New Pattonsburg will be more than a five-minute walk from the town center.

The Consulting engineers on the project refused to provide graduated lot sizes despite the design team representative's pleadings. The request required them to change a drawing which they argued was too much work. Subsequent evaluation of existing homeowners' properties revealed that some of the houses in Old Pattonsburg were simply too large to fit on the uniform lots indicated by the engineer. The town was compelled to offer residents the choice of either 1, 1.5, or 2 lots each depending upon their existing property size. Ironically, when the lottery was complete, New Pattonsburg had graduated lot sizes; seniors had chosen single lots close to the center of town. And most families had elected to live at the perimeter of the new town with their bigger houses, still at a comfortable walking distance from shops and restaurants to the younger community members.

Another conflict arose late in the design process when a local restaurant owner, Terry Hoover, applied pressure to the City Council to shift the design of the retail center away from the Main Street format to allow for a large parking lot and a northward orientation to front Highway C. Hoover argued that the shift was critical to lure customers from the highway to his restaurant and the other local businesses. Design team representatives believe that the shift would cause the retail center literally to turn its back to the city. In that maintaining the Main Street format was not only in good faith by delivering what the citizenry had requested by also in its creation of a retail center more appealing to highway customers than a traditional strip mall.

Biography

David Warford, Mayor of Pattonsburg, was elected to his office three weeks before the first of the Pattonsburg's two week floods of 1993. He ran unopposed at the urging of his community for the office that his grandfather once held when Pattonsburg was a prosperous rural community. His Grandfather's name adorns the City Hall where David now spends hours and energy he could never have envisioned when signed up for the mayoral election three years ago.

David owns and operates Northwest Missouri Honda, a business that is suprisingly prolific for its seemingly remote location; his little business sells motorcycles and All-Terrain-Vehicles to customers in a seven-state region. As in his business life, Warford has become successful in his political life-remaining humble despite accolades from likes of the governor and the president. He is the rarest of politicians: He has no interest in notoriety. In fact, he had to be convinced to run for a second term at the conclusion of this first two years. He speaks of his interest in taking care of "the people" and he means it, traveling to Jefferson City and Washington City to find support for a senior center or the new school. While other more vocal members in the community, in their persistent requests for further support, have occasionally angered officials at the state and federal levels, David expresses his gratitude for everyone's support and worries that everyone who has given and energy to the relocation project feels that their interests have been represented through the process. Although he's laid-back but genuine style sometimes gets him in trouble with deadlines and phone messages, it has won him friends in high places.

Throughout the relocation process, Mayor Warford has transformed himself from a quiet man with the best of intentions to help his community to the leader of a major project with great skill political savvy. He plans to retire as soon as the move is complete. For his wife and son, Janet and Tyler, that time won't come soon enough.

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