South Carolina-based urban planning firm, Arnett Muldrow & Associates, presented community stakeholders on Thursday morning with their plan to look into creating a Downtown Development Authority in Sheridan.
The group was brought to town by the Downtown Sheridan Association. Aaron Arnett, AICP, with Arnett Muldrow explains the benefits of a DDA.
AMS will first determine if a DDA is right for Sheridan before figuring out what the town's model would be. He says the structure of a DDA can vary widely.
The group is in phase one, market research, of a three phase project. Focusing mainly in retail businesses, they will take a week-long market snapshot, collecting zip codes from customers through surveys they have distributed in the downtown district. That information will be used to measure, among several factors, market reach, areas that the town meets demand and areas where Sheridan could improve.
For example the study will show things like the areas of Main Street where customer traffic is high, whether or not the town could profit from more of a certain type of store as measured by supply and demand, and chart which geographic regions come to Sheridan's downtown.
About 20 business owners and community leaders attended the morning session in DSA's community building on South Main Street. A second session was held at 5 pm.
