Downtown Stevens Point is a dynamic district that serves as a focal point of the city’s arts and cultural life, with multiple retail, entertainment, dining, and hospitality options for residents and visitors. Increasingly, housing is being added to the downtown mix.

While stakeholders in the Stevens Point Strategic Plan planning process were quick to praise the progress being made downtown, many feel that to take the next step in its evolution as a community of choice for talent and jobs, Stevens Point must expand its focus beyond downtown into the city’s other activity centers. This strategy would not come at the expense of downtown but seek to complement downtown with commercial, recreational, and housing Hubs that provide different environments and options to appeal to a broader segment of the population.

By expanding the number of Hubs that support the community and strengthening the sense of place within those Hubs, Stevens Point will be able to meet its increased demand for amenities while preserving much of its small-town charm. 

In the context of the Stevens Point Strategic Plan, “Hubs” is capitalized because this concept serves as the lynchpin of the plan and seeks to create districts that are unique to Stevens Point. Rather than watching one particular section of the community grow too tall or feel too dense, the Hub strategy will develop a network of creative nodes across the city that will serve and strengthen the neighborhoods that surround them and expand and diversify the lifestyles supported in Stevens Point. This will simultaneously honor the traditions and lifestyles that have made Stevens Point great while adding new features that improve its capacity to attract a strong workforce.

This approach activates two key schools of practice that have proven valuable to contemporary community and economic development – both of which have already taken root in Stevens Point. Placemaking will elevate the identity of these Hubs, leveraging existing character and informing future housing, commercial, cultural, and recreational investments, and Walkable Neighborhoods will inform accessibility, infrastructure, and development within these Hubs in hopes of supporting more complete districts within the community. 

This approach also gives Stevens Point the opportunity to improve incrementally, to support local companies in the process, and to test the success of projects before investing on a grander scale.