Planning

Tappahannock Downtown Revitalization project area map.

Planning

Service Overview

We bring out the best in our communities.

First and foremost, our job is to listen. Each community is unique and faces its own challenges and opportunities. No matter what type of project we work on, we first communicate with stakeholders to understand the landscape, then combine a community’s vision with good data and best planning practices to ensure that we are approaching each problem in a way that will bring about attainable outcomes and lasting change.

Our planners are passionate about making communities work better. We are driven, curious and committed to finding the best solutions for our client communities. Each of our planners has worked in the public sector and can understand and work as partners to local government staff. Our experience working with stakeholders as well as elected and appointed bodies in myriad localities helps us facilitate smooth planning and land use processes and create plans that all parties can see themselves in. We believe a plan should be accessible to all readers and should be compelling enough to be used regularly by all parties engaged in developing a locality’s future.

Capabilities

Comprehensive Planning/Master Planning
Zoning Ordinance Updates
Downtown Revitalization
Grant Preparation & Management
Site Suitability
Feasibility Studies
Public Participation
GIS Analysis
Small Area Planning
On-Call Planning Assistance to Localities
Housing Assessments
Planning and Land Use Education
Comprehensive Plan Amendments

Featured Project

Tappahannock Downtown Revitalization

The Town of Tappahannock selected Summit’s Planning department to assist with planning the Tappahannock Downtown Revitalization as part of Virginia’s Main Street Program. This plan, meant to address the community’s needs and assist with further economic development, was funded by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development in collaboration with Tappahannock Main Street.

To properly understand the needs of the Town, Summit’s Planning department took inventory of existing businesses and conditions, reviewed and analyzed survey data, held stakeholder meetings, and conducted further surveying in service to the project. The Summit Planning team then developed a strategy for revitalizing Tappahannock’s Downtown. The overall “Downtown Revitalization Plan” was organized into two parts: the “Economic Restructuring Plan” and the “Branding + Marketing Plan.” These two plans involved different aspects of revitalization and contained their own recommendations.

The Tappahannock Downtown Revitalization Plan document also included two other components: the Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) and Environmental Record Review (ERR). Each included detailed information about proposed physical improvements that the Town could pursue pending additional funding.