New London Downtown Master Plan
Key in the plan are new ideas for Main Street: curb bump-outs to calm traffic and purify stormwater, special intersections to announce the town, and vine trees to green the pedestrian areas.
New London is a small town nestled on the edge of a pond in the Crow River. It exists because of the river; it grew up around a waterfall and the series of mills that turned water power to industry. It was first settled in 1865 and has been a county seat, a railroad town, a gateway to Minnesota’s west central lakes, and, today, an arts and crafts center with a population of around 1300.
New London has a compact and mostly vital downtown that serves city residents, visitors recreating on the nearby Glacial Lakes State Trail and in Sibley State Park, and art/craft/gift tourists on tour buses. Downtown New London is at a bit of a crossroads. Several recent significant vacancies have left gaps in the city’s fabric, high speed traffic on Main Street degrades the pedestrian environment, and tenuous connections to the Crow River and Mill Pond prevent the city from truly capitalizing on these natural amenities.
With a grant from the Southwest Initiative Foundation, the City of New London commissioned Treeline to prepare a downtown master plan. Based on meetings with an advisory committee and extensive time in New London, this plan envisions a more aesthetically pleasing, pedestrian friendly, vibrant downtown.
The plan is organized around 15 elements, which come together as the complete plan. It was adopted by the New London city council in early 2010.
To receive a digital copy of the entire plan document, contact Treeline.