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4.0 Recommendutions <br />The recommendations in this chapter are divided into four key strategies important for the future <br />success of downtown Ellensburg: <br />o Reinforcing the Center: This strategy is designed to focus on the core of downtown <br />Ellensburg by providing enhanced gathering places and gateways to the community in the <br />public realm and additional development opportunities in vacant ground floor and, more <br />importantly, upper floor spaces. <br />c Expanding Success: This strategy recognizes that the core of Ellensburg is highly developed, <br />and there is great potential to expand the footprint of downtown to include blocks that would <br />connect downtown to major development opportunity sites. <br />e Connecting the Community; This strategy focuses on multiple modes of transportation that <br />allow iocals and visitors to use downtown Ellensburg by car, bike, on foot, or by public <br />transit. It also continues to reinforce the importance of connections between downtown and <br />existing hotels and between Central Washington University and downtown. <br />e Enhancing the Visitor Experience; This shategy recognizes that tourism and visitor traffic <br />are critical to the success of Eiiensburg. Recommendations here focus on having a curated <br />visitor experience and on the potential for a new hotel and meeting space in downtown <br />Ellensburg. <br />4.1 Reinforcing the Center <br />4.1.1 Implement Ellensburg Town Square as d gathering place. High Priority, <br />Perhaps the most significant public improvement shown on the plan is to create a tme Ellensburg <br />town square adjacent to the Rotary Pavilion. Figure 8 below shows some examples of similar <br />spaces in other places and the plan in Figure 9 shows that the Ellensburg Town Square would <br />letain parking on some uf the space, make better use of parking on adjacent blocks, and replace <br />existing parking with a green lawn panel and a small splash pad that can be used as the cenhal <br />gathering placJ for the community. This space could include restrooms relocated from 3'd and <br />Main as well as the downtown visitor's center. <br />Figure 8: Green gathering spaces <br />26