Preserving historic charm key for Woodstock residents, city council members in development of Die Cast property

Both Woodstock City Council members and residents showed enthusiasm for the development of the Die Cast property when Woodstock City Council met last week to discuss its purchase.

The process of deciding to purchase the property still is in its initial stages, but residents and city officials, alike, say they want to preserve Woodstock's character.

Garret Anderson, Woodstock’s economic development director, presented the objectives of purchasing the site, which included increasing the number of residents, businesses and visitors in Woodstock while keeping the community’s historic charm. Anderson proposed the downtown development plan, which was approved in January, as the framework for the development of the Die Cast property. He said it's aimed not to be a replica, but an extension or enhancement of downtown Woodstock.

“One of the first questions I get is what would the city of Woodstock like to see on this site. This process is really a way that we hope to help answer that question,” he said.

The Die Cast site is described by the downtown plan as “the primary Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) opportunities in the area for significant mixed-use development to add dwellings and commercial space downtown.”

The site originally was proposed for the controversial Founders Crossing plan, which some said they found concerning. But they also said the current move to incorporate the property into the downtown plan is good for Woodstock.

“I couldn't help but get really excited about that big chunk of land that sits out there,” said Woodstock resident Lauretta Wolf, 73. “The Founders thing scared me. Thinking about it being a reflection of a continuation of the Square. Thinking about each resident… This feels to me like this is something that is not going to screw up what Woodstock is.”

Although many in the room on Dec. 17 showed excitement about the objectives, not everyone was on board. Councilman Jim Prindiville said he thinks the area is better suited for businesses than residential purposes.

“When I look at the downtown and what businesses find attractive downtown, my observation has been that a business's employees want to work here. And that's a high motivation for a business to locate near our downtown,” he said.

Councilwoman Lisa Lohmeyer said she liked the objectives, and the idea of mix-use residential and commercial space is a good start, but wasn’t in a hurry to purchase the property. She's not convinced that the best avenue is for the city to purchase the land.

"I guess I want to know a little bit more about how we continue marketing the site ... and how far we go with each proposal before we can only stick with one,” Lohmeyer said.

Lohmeyer wasn’t alone that night in thinking the market should be more defined. Woodstock resident Allen Stebbins believes the property has potential for attracting a whole generation.

“If you're trying to attract a millennial audience or a millennial market, most of them obviously want to live in large urban areas with a lot of amenities. Those that are starting families want to live about 30 miles out from the city. That's sort of a maximum. So that kind of puts pressure on whatever is decided here to come up with something. Again, it makes Woodstock a draw (as) a community for people to live and raise their families,” he said.

Urban developer John McNamara of Woodstock recommended paring down the objectives and the vision to improve the market response.

“I think it would be extremely helpful for those developers to talk with investors about how to market the site,” he said. “I also think what's been brought up by a number of council members tonight in terms of the need and objective to use a market-driven approach, where you lay out there in a very organized way what you're looking for from a vision perspective based on the downtown development plan is the framework, then let the market respond.

"I personally think we did not have a good market response up to this point in my research,” McNamara said.

Both Deputy Mayor Mike Turner and Lohmeyer agreed that the use of the space should be left open for creativity.

“It should be evolutionary for us," Turner said. "From a city perspective, an extension of the Square, more opportunities for ... economic activity, more amenities for the people that live there or those in the community or those that visit us.”

The purchase of the Die Cast property is to be discussed during future meetings in the new year.