Support land use patterns that:

• Maintain or enhance community levels of service.

• Foster the long-term fiscal health of the community.

• Maintain and enhance resident quality of life.

• Promote compatible, well-designed development.

• Implement goals and policies of the comprehensive plan, related master plan and/or facility plans.

• Are compatible with FAFB and airport overlay areas.

• Support a walkable and bikeable City.

• Provide a range of housing types and options.

• Support living wage employment opportunities for its residents.

• Encourage travel demand reduction through use of mixed-use residential, commercial, and institutional development.

• Advance multimodal facilities to reduce reliance on single-occupancy vehicles.

• Promote connectivity between developments.

Encourage compatible infill development and redevelopment of vacant and under-utilized properties within City limits, ensuring compatibility with FAFB and airport overlay areas.

Strategy:

• Review the development code and best practices to identify infill development standards including lot sizes, access to the roadway and utilities, and design standards for housing for missing middle and high-density housing consistent with the Downtown Plan.

Action:

• Update development standards in the zoning code to implement small-lot development standards and redevelopment in high-density areas consistent with the Downtown Plan.

• Develop a Geographic Information System (GIS) inventory and a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) or Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) strategy to address the infill of missing sidewalks along undeveloped sites, ensuring enhanced pedestrian and bicycle mobility and safety.

Develop and enhance a transportation system in Airway Heights that:

• Facilitates the safe, efficient movement of people, goods, and services.

• Supports non-motorized and recreational needs.

• Supports land use objectives.

• Promotes livable neighborhoods.

• Increases access to and encourages the use of public transit.

• Improves safe pedestrian and bike routes to schools, housing, employment areas, and between communities.

• Encourages completion of the street grid and improved alley access for development of low density, medium density, and infill housing.

• Provides a residential grid network that ensures multimodal mobility between developments, recreation, services, and schools along City collectors and arterials.

• Implements sound access management techniques by providing connectivity between contiguous commercial developments off the street system.

Participate and coordinate Airway Heights objectives with inter-jurisdictional and regional planning for commercial air travel and air freight services.

Coordinate all long-range community planning objectives with Fairchild Air Force Base (FAFB), minimizing or eliminating operational or land use conflicts.

Maintain infrastructure and personnel at levels that provide Airway Heights residents   with services that are high-quality, effective, and affordable.

Develop marketing programs to support community advancement, future development opportunities, and employment.

Action:

• Implement a public relations campaign using local and regional news media to attract a wider range of visitors to the community.

• Monitor proposed urban zoning designations and developments elsewhere within the region and determine market requirements and potentials for commercial, office, and industrial uses in order to protect the interest of Airway Heights in the allocation of future development opportunities.

• Develop an information base that includes the current level and type of employment along with potential job location forecasts.

• Develop a community branding program.

Support revitalization of existing business and commercial districts in Airway Heights.

Action:

• Develop a business retention program to ensure the continued viability of existing businesses.

• Create parking and business improvement authorities in downtown area north of US-2.

• Create local improvement districts.

• Strengthen existing businesses and support reinvestment in downtown by enhancing the visibility, access, and concentration of local businesses.

Invest in drastic streetscape improvements and beautification efforts in Downtown.

Strategy:

• Develop streetscape designs along US-2 and King Street. Use green space, landscaping, street furniture, and pedestrian lighting to establish a multi-purpose, attractive, safe public space.

• Establish a public art program with a downtown focus area. Engage the community and local artists, partner with local nonprofits, and investigate the feasibility of a public art on loan program.

• Review and update zoning overlay districts and identify an opportunity zone to ensure design standards contribute to downtown development and success.

• Incorporate wayfinding and gateway signage throughout the city to improve connections between downtown and other areas. Such signage should include art elements and environmental knowledge, and should communicate a sense of arrival.

• Define a transition into downtown by constructing US-2 to provide traffic calming through the core, and by encouraging a greater density of buildings and activity in the core.

Strengthen existing businesses and support reinvestment Downtown.

Strategy:

• Invest in local businesses with a focus on maintaining existing ones. Partner with businesses, provide resources and education on maintenance requirements and opportunities, and enforce code consistently.

• Evaluate parking strategies, surface lots, and opportunities for infill and redevelopment as appropriate.

• Study infrastructure needs and funding for the downtown area south of US-2.

• Leverage investment with grants, city funds, partnerships, and collaborate to foster downtown development that can be utilized for storefront improvement grants to local businesses.

• Study the benefits of vacating 13th and 14th avenues as a stimulus to private redevelopment along US-2 .

• Capitalize on business diversity and culture such as the variety of restaurants, colors, and ethnicity. Support unique designs, colorful buildings, and use of public art downtown.

Create and improve collaborative, inclusive and safe public spaces in the Downtown.

Strategy:

• Develop a civic campus south of US-2 and study the possibility of relocating city services there. The campus could be a non-profit/government partnership and include a center with health/education services .

• Encourage activation of downtown public spaces. Examples could include community gardens, trails, pocket parks, etc.

• Re -envision Sunset Park as a northern downtown anchor. Develop a Master Park Plan that improves connections and integration with downtown.

• Involve the public in events and programs that get people excited about Downtown Airway Heights such as a public market and collaborative art.

• Utilize tactical urbanism approaches to initiate pilot projects such as parklets, bike lanes, street furniture, plazas, and traffic calming to inspire long-term change and gauge and seek community buy-in.