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Suggestions made for revitalizing downtown

At their June meeting, members of the Fallbrook Revitalization Committee were asked to prioritize what they felt was needed to be done to revitalize downtown Fallbrook. The committee, which is made up of town leaders, had come up with eight suggestions at the May meeting.

Roy Moosa, president of Fallbrook Village Association, conducts the monthly revitalization meeting and announced the results of the poll at the July 6 meeting. Moosa said that they will work on implementing the suggestions one idea at a time.

In order of importance, the results are:

  1. We need diagonal parking downtown to slow down traffic and make downtown more pedestrian friendly.
  2. We need more destination businesses to bring people downtown from other areas.
  3. We need “Welcome to Fallbrook” signs to help people from out of the area find downtown.
  4. We need more outdoor cafés.
  5. We need to light up Main Street at night.
  6. We need regular events in the Village Square to bring people downtown.
  7. We need regular large events in the Library Plaza venue to bring people downtown.
  8. We would like to see a Railroad Heritage Park as proposed by the Village Association to help create more things to do downtown.
Other comments made on the survey suggested that Fallbrook's downtown needs a uniform look, a car museum, a walking tour, bike and walking trails near downtown, and part of Main Avenue closed to make it pedestrian oriented.

The recent Party Off the Grid event which used the Bean & Bug parking lot on Main Avenue as well as the Library Plaza for a carnival was an attempt at utilizing downtown in a new way to bring more people there.

According to Moosa, "using the big parking lot as a venue was very successful for the community, the same for the Bean & Bug parking lot."

Moosa said they are forming a committee to meet with the county to talk about creating diagonal parking downtown; this "will create more parking and slow traffic down." Closing a street would also make the area more pedestrian friendly.

One option that is also being worked on is the Railroad Heritage Park which would occupy the strip of land on Main, just north of Elder Street, in front of 127 West Social House. Moosa said the plans include having a caboose, (one has been located in Barstow) and a replica of the Fallbrook Train Station.

The committee knows that destination businesses like antique stores, restaurants and museums are needed downtown in order to bring people in from other towns. One suggestion is a car museum. There would be no problem getting vintage vehicles on loan from local residents for 30 days at a time, said Moosa. The only problem is finding an indoor location to house the museum.

Any residents who want to comment on these suggestions or have any ideas of their own on how to revitalize downtown Fallbrook may email them to [email protected] or drop them off at the Village News office, 1588 S. Mission Road, Suite 200. This input will be included in a follow up article.

 

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