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Main Street is buzzing these days – new restaurants and shops, businesses sprucing up their facades, people ambling down the sidewalks instead of circling the blocks burning gas looking for a parking spot. Wouldn’t it be nice to link this emerging vitality with an area that has already demonstrated success and popularity like the Vista?

But consider walking across Assembly Street to get from a place on Main down to a place in the Vista. Most of Assembly is over a hundred feet wide from sidewalk to sidewalk, and with the turning lanes, traffic never really stops. In order to cross it, you have to look in all directions, hurry to the sliver of median, and then run to the far side before the light changes.

David Lockwood of Colliers International is part of a growing effort to confront the problem. “For several years, City Center Partnership and the Vista Guild have talked about this barrier and how we can overcome a six-lane highway dividing our downtown area. One doesn’t have to go far in realizing that from the Tower at 1301 Gervais, people will walk as far as the Columbia Museum of Art or to Mast General Store which is a total of five blocks. Yet when we think about going to the Vista to eat lunch only three blocks away, we tend to drive and look for a parking space.”

The public’s perception of Assembly, in this regard, is what is known as a “psychological moat,” a term used most recently in the Urban Land Institute’s Technical Assistant Panel report – “Columbia Connectivity: Linking Main Street and The Vista.” ULI is a non-profit research and education organization dedicated to responsible land use and creating and sustaining thriving communities. Their report was sponsored by the Congaree Coalition through the EPA’s Brownfields Assessment Grant in order to receive unbiased recommendations on the issues of connectivity and walkability in downtown Columbia.

The panelists selected for the study have backgrounds and experience in land use as it relates to Columbia’s specific challenges. The all-volunteer, ULI member panel consists of developers, a real estate investor, a transportation planner, an architect, a market analyst, an urban planning and design consultant, and an economic development expert. None of the panelists are from Columbia, and none of them are stakeholders regarding Columbia’s downtown development.

Over a two-day period, the panel reviewed maps and drawings of the area, met with representatives of the Congaree Coalition, toured the areas pertinent to the study (downtown Main Street, the USC campus, Innovista and the Vista), held a town hall meeting for public input, and then interviewed civic and business leaders representing all points of view. During two deliberation sessions, the panel produced a PowerPoint presentation and then presented it to all parties involved in the study, including the public. The subsequent full report detailed the opportunities, challenges, and recommendations of the panel.

The opportunity with the most visual impact is Assembly Street (and to a lesser degree Gervais), which creates the most prominent barrier from linking the four studied areas. The panel also found that there are numerous surface parking lots throughout each area, some in strategic locations such as the lots at the intersection of Assembly and Gervais, which can be developed or re-purposed to facilitate linking the areas. Other opportunities include a large employment base in the downtown area, the presence of regional assets and institutions like state and local government and USC, and the possibility of attracting USC graduates to live in the area.

Some of Columbia’s challenges are well known, such as the city’s limited planning powers and outdated zoning ordinances. Fragmented ownership of roads and parcels further hampers any efforts at a cohesive plan for downtown. Although there have been some significant “urban moments” for Columbia like the development and success of the Vista, these have been anomalies rather than part of a community-wide plan.

Taking all of the opportunities and challenges into consideration, the panel made some recommendations designed to facilitate all methods of transportation, thus linking the areas involved in the study. Further, the panel suggested “cherry picking” the recommendations so that significant improvements could be made quickly.

The most important “east to west” recommendation is that of streetscaping and imposing a “road diet” on Assembly Street. This includes modifying vehicle lanes, medians and sidewalks in order to reduce vehicle speed and accommodate multiple methods of travel. Sidewalks would be enhanced with shade trees, bus shelters, and street furniture, making it more conducive and comfortable for people to walk. The panel determined that Assembly Street could afford these strategies since vehicle counts were well below capacity. The panel also recommended expanding and improving various means of public transportation in the downtown area and urged the city to take the reins in advancing city-center initiatives instead of leaving that to various community organizations.

The panel found that the section of Gervais Street that bisects the Vista is difficult for pedestrians to cross. This creates another “psychological moat” separating arts and entertainment in the northern part from arts, entertainment, and Columbia’s Convention Center in the southern part. Putting that portion of Gervais on a “road diet” by reducing lane size and re-purposing lanes on the six-lane section down to the Congaree River would facilitate pedestrians and bicycles. It also recommended additional streetscaping in the Vista (similar to what has been done on Lady Street) and including parts of the Vista in USC’s new circular transit routes.

The panel notes that the support of the SC Department of Transportation and their “complete streets” strategy of better serving all modes of transportation is key to these efforts. Fred Delk, executive director of Columbia Development Corporation, is encouraged that the SC DOT is interested in cooperating with Columbia’s plans to improve walkability along the thoroughfares that it controls.

Some area-wide and long-term recommendations by the panel include optimizing parking solutions in the study areas to benefit the whole plan for downtown and creating a public awareness campaign highlighting improvements and advising drivers of the presence of more bicycles and pedestrians. Finally, the effect of the city’s efforts will be diminished if there are not people around to enjoy them, so the panel advised that residential density in the downtown area needed to be increased.

By connecting the disparate parts of downtown Columbia, the economic success of one area will be enabled to spread to another, thus ensuring the economic success of all areas involved. This new, cohesive dream for downtown Columbia is catching on with everyone – much like the dreams that have resulted in the individual successes of the Vista, Innovista, Main Street and USC.