The city of Clemson, South Carolina which boasts a population of approximately 12,000 full time residents and 17,000 student residents has focused on its planned retail growth over the past 4 years. The city understood that their retail sector would grow naturally, but in order to control the growth and have this coincide with the City's initiatives, they began working with Buxton in 2006.

Below is a question and answer excerpt from an interview conducted with the City's Program Manager, Andy Blondeau:

Buxton: Lowes announced last fall they were coming to Clemson. How is their project coming and did you provide any incentives to bring them to your city?

Andy Blondeau: The Lowes project is right on track - their plan reviews are done and they should open in early 2010. We don't provide incentives for retailers per se, but we did provide them with an Infrastructure Reimbursement program where the City paid for new street lights, and Lowes will pay for the installation. We also paid to have a new stop light put in around the new site to help with traffic.

Buxton: We heard that Publix was also opening up in Clemson - how did this come to pass?

AB: Publix approached us about a site. They came to the planning and codes office looking for an available property. We found a track that they could assemble for a shopping area just off of Tiger Blvd. (just off of campus), and Publix will serve as the anchor for this area.



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An article by Philip L. Walker, AICP in the American Planning Association's Planning Magazine explored the "Top Ten Myths of Downtown Planning."  The following is an extract from the article with Mr. Walker's comments on Myth No. 3 and additional comments by Buxton's staff.

Myth No. 3: Our strategy for revitalizing downtown should focus on retail. "Successful downtowns enjoy a rich mixture of diverse uses...however, a singular focus on retail is usually an ill-advised strategy... in fact, given its importance to most downtowns, housing is often the best bet of any component... residents make their downtown feel inhabited and safe thereby attracting those living outside of downtown to visit for shopping, dining, cultural events and other activities."

Buxton's Response:

We agree with Mr. Walker's comment that "successful downtowns enjoy a rich mixture of diverse uses." All too often communities concentrate on one or a limited number of projects to reenergize their downtown.

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Several of our staff recently attended the International City/County Managers Association's annual conference in Montreal. One of the most frequently asked questions I answered was concerning good news in the market - and there is good news! Many economists are saying the worst of the recession is behind us with the markets steadily improving since early in the 2nd Quarter of this year. Even Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve announced this week that the recession is, "very likely over". One of my municipal clients recently reported that although they experienced a 4% decrease in sales tax receipts from 2008 to 2009, they had a 1.9% increase in sales tax revenues from Q109 to Q209.

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