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City of Ruston Comprehensive Plan “Ruston 21”

Partnership with ABW Architects and Sasaki

Citizen based process to create & actualize city-wide vision currently in implementation
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Tipton Associates was engaged by the City of Ruston to lead the strategic and physical planning process. An interdisciplinary team was assembled including Sasaki, engineers, economists, and land use attorneys. Working with the community, the resulting design is a 20 year master plan to strengthen and preserve their heritage, capitalize on their college town diversity, and become a regional leader in the knowledge-based economy.
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The planning process was deliberately designed to encourage citizen participation from inception to adoption and beyond – into active citizen participation and accountability through plan implementation. A steering committee and citizen advisory committee were formed at the beginning of the effort to ensure a transparent planning process and guide citizen working committees to oversee implementation.
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Ruston 21 is a partnership between community members, business leaders, multiple city departments, and numerous regional and state agencies.
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The Core District was identified early as a priority, designating it a mixed use, mixed density, inclusive district. Streetscape improvements designed by Tipton and Hunt Guillot began construction in 2010 and are being implemented in phases to remove overhead utility lines, adds street trees and improve sidewalks.
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A context sensitive approach to streets allows automobile corridors to transition to complete streets over time.
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The new street scape invites pedestrians back to the historic core creating a walkable tree lined district.
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The plan energizes and reinvents the downtown core, located between the university, the university’s research campus, an arts district, a historic district, and historic and revitalized neighborhoods.
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Transportation improvements were strategically prioritized to incent private investment in key areas of the city.
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Promoting a safe and efficient park and bike network, the bike and trails plan connects the university, the historic core, parks, residential districts and retail areas.

In 2008, the city embarked on its citizen-based planning process, Ruston 21. It organized groups to be concerned with the vision, land use, infrastructure investment, and economic development of the city. These studies were concerned with each of the city’s four quadrants and the central district which literally defines the crossroads of the city’s identity. Ruston’s growth in recent decades had migrated away from the city core to the north part of town, resulting in a pattern of disinvestment around its university, and its central business district. Ruston 21 was a community based effort organized to create and actualize a vision for the entire city. Their most pressing concern is in reversing the decay of declining neighborhoods. Tipton Associates and Sasaki Associates worked to generate the strategies and physical plans to spark this outcome.

Ken and his Team have been tireless in their dedication to seeing our project through to conclusion with solid ideas and plans to get the answers and direction we sought. We liked the fact that Ken takes a practical approach to projects. He is sensitive to costs, not only of the process, but having a plan that you can actually afford to put into reality when you finish. Our City has already improved and in a better position for the future and we haven’t even finished the process yet.

- Mayor Dan Hollingsworth

LocationRuston, LA

ClientCity of Ruston

ServicesComprehensive Master Planning

Completion Date2010

Tipton Associates

Architecture Planning Interiors

449 Westmoreland Drive
Baton Rouge Louisiana 70806
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