The Downtown Dover Partnership presented details of its master plan for 15 acres of the capital’s core to the Dover City Council on Monday.
The partnership contracted with the consulting group Mosaic over the past year to interview hundreds of downtown residents and review zoning codes, demographics and potential funding sources before releasing its plan for 15 acres of the capital's core to local stakeholders.
The plan envisions a $500 million restoration of the struggling neighborhood, which Dover Planning Director Mary Ellen Grey says has seen retail vacancy rates rise to roughly 50 percent.
Asked by City Council President Roy Sudler Jr. to summarize the reasons for the vacancies and high turnover in downtown retail spaces, Grey offered a simple answer.
"There's not enough foot traffic," she replied.
Grey added that the shift to remote work by many state agencies only intensified the decline of downtown Dover. "We have a lot of state offices here," she said. "I used work in the Delaware Economic Development Office. There were 40 staff in there on a regular basis. There are probably 10 people there regularly now. The state has allowed many offices to be left vacant." In the past, those state employees were a key customer base for Dover's downtown businesses.
The Downtown Dover Partnership's master plan would remake the neighborhood into a dense, walkable urban core with a grocery store, nearly 1,000 new units of housing and improved transit connections to key destinations like Delaware State University’s main campus.
Partnership Director Diane Laird told the council that the addition of mixed-use residential and commercial developments and a small grocery store would help anchor the neighborhood's revival; with a grocery store nearby, residents could do their basic errands on foot, potentially drawing other businesses to downtown retail spaces.
Laird added that the addition of pedestrian and bicycle corridors to Dover's downtown — including along South Governor's Avenue to serve employees at nearby Bayhealth Hospital — would also draw new residents to the neighborhood. "If we've got a lot of people living here and they want to bike to work, we've got to make it encouraging, safe and beautiful for them."
The master plan also suggests pedestrian safety and traffic calming measures to encourage foot traffic, including narrower streets and the addition of bollards to State Street. Last year saw four incidents in which drivers hit pedestrians in downtown Dover, including one fatal collision.
Laird concedes that creating a dense, mixed-used downtown could seem daunting, but argues it is time to make use of a core that has become a shell of its former self.
"What we have is, in many ways, not working," she told the council. "The idea of bringing 2,000 residents downtown is a little daunting. It certainly won’t happen overnight. But if we want to be a thriving downtown, we have to embrace change."
While some council members raised aesthetic concerns, council was generally enthusiastic about the plan. Council President Roy Sudler raised the possibility of a passenger rail connection to Wilmington as an additional goal for the revitalization project.
"We’ve talked about a linkage between Dover and Wilmington in regards to a railroad system," he said. "Having additional transportation so people in Wilmington and other places can get here quickly and get where they need."
Councilman David Anderson likewise expressed interest in adding more robust transit connections to other Delaware cities to downtown Dover, noting that the relatively low population density of the neighborhood has been a barrier to increased transit service in the past.
"If we increase the population density, that would take us one step closer," he said.
The Downtown Dover Partnership acknowledges the plan almost certainly requires a public-private partnership akin to the development efforts in Wilmington’s Riverside neighborhood, and Director Diane Laird told council her organization will encourage property owners interested in taking part in the revitalization to make use of existing development subsidies — including low income housing tax credits from the Delaware State Housing Authority — to help move the needle.
The Partnership already has $1.2 million on hand to assist property owners making essential repairs — including addressing health and safety hazards — to downtown storefronts.
