neighborhood preservation
 
 

 

Introduction

In 2009, the City of De Pere engaged RDG Planning & Design to prepare Neighborhood Preservation Plans for three historic neighborhoods on the east bank of the Fox River, immediately north of Downtown, all of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. These neighborhoods include the North Broadway, Randall, and Michigan-Superior National Register Districts. Under the city's Historic Preservation Ordinance, preservation plans include provisions that guide public and private development, and may propose other changes to conserve the quality of historic neighborhoods. The specific recommendations of these plans should adapt to the character and specific needs of neighborhoods and their residents. To this end, residents of all three districts participated in public meetings to discuss distinguishing qualities and identify critical features for protection or enhancement.

 

Purpose

Successful conservation policies encourage appropriate improvements, investments, and public actions that sustain the value and quality of neighborhoods. Each of the three neighborhoods considered in this plan have distinctive qualities, and their development played an important role in the history of De Pere and the Green Bay metropolitan region. Their historical roles are ably discussed in the extensive research compiled to support their nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. Their physical nature - residential architecture, street landscape, and relationship to their surroundings - contribute to their attractiveness as places to live and make them valuable to both property owners and the city as a whole.

 

 
neighborhood preservation
 

Built environments achieve harmony and coherence when development has respected certain patterns or relationships over the course of many years. We intuitively recognize and appreciate this harmony, but have more difficulty trying to define the patterns that lead to it. These patterns may include such factors as street width and landscaping, land use, size of buildings, types of materials, location of houses on their lots, and relationship of buildings to their adjacent street. One of the goals of this document is to define these patterns in the North Broadway, Randall, and Michigan-Superior districts, and encourage public and private actions that reinforce the character and integrity of individual neighborhoods.


The overall approach of this plan is positive, designed to encourage public and private actions that make neighborhoods better. However, a plan to conserve the quality of neighborhoods also assumes that changes are possible that could alter and even threaten that quality. These changes could include land use patterns, street projects, or new buildings developed on vacant lots that change the time-honored scale or character of residential streets. Thus, this plan also identifies these possible threats, and establishes policies and regulations to guard against them.
 

neighborhood preservation

 

The purpose of this plan is to ensure that the North Broadway, Randall, and Michigan-Superior neighborhoods continue to be distinctive, vital neighborhoods for many years. It recognizes that the development of towns and neighborhoods is a process that residents, developers, and governments contribute to over time. Based on this, the plan has regulatory, advisory, and policy components.

 

The regulatory component identifies possible threats to the patterns and features that are central to the integrity of the three neighborhoods, and to provide regulations that address these threats. These regulations are limited to a small number of serious issues that could seriously harm the neighborhoods.

 

The advisory component provides guidance to private property owners as they contemplate changes to their own properties and homes, based on the characteristics of their neighborhood. These ideas do not dictate styles or specific solutions, but instead suggest a choice of approaches that maintain the harmony and consistency that define these residential districts. Most residents and property owners understand their responsibilities to neighbors and want to do "the right thing." This part of the plan provides a gallery of possible solutions, based on the precedents already found in the three neighborhoods.

 

The policy component considers actions such as public projects that can support the neighborhood conservation efforts. These policies and projects are often the result of partnerships between city government and private property owners.