Orem Heart Downtown Master Plan
Orem, Utah
WHY
The Orem Heart Downtown Master Plan envisions a dynamic, family-friendly, and economically vibrant downtown core, seamlessly integrating the arts, recreation, education, entertainment, and retail to forge a distinct sense of place for both residents and visitors. This comprehensive plan provides a guiding framework for future development and programming.
HOW
This plan documents existing conditions, highlights prior planning efforts, and identifies Downtown Orem’s key assets, including recreational, cultural, educational, and commercial destinations centered around State Street. It builds on these strengths by showing how public art, programming, and creative experiences can enhance identity, economic activity, and community connection. The plan also provides design guidance for public spaces, streets, and development, with recommendations focused on walkability, enhancing civic, multimodal access, and visual cohesion. Lastly, it translates goals and design principles into place-based concepts that integrate recreation, arts, circulation, and supporting uses to encourage daily activity, community events, and long-term adaptability.
The plan identifies how signature destinations, including a four-season Ice Ribbon, an Artisan Village with artist housing, studios, and maker space, and an upgraded SCERA Bandshell and event lawn, can work together with SCERA Park improvements, a Festival Street, and urban design guidelines for an economically vibrant State Street Corridor to create a downtown people actively seek out.
WHAT
This plan outlines a framework for advancing the Downtown vision by proposing incremental phasing and a blend of public and private investment. It identifies potential project sequencing, implementation considerations, and a menu of funding tools and revenue strategies that may be evaluated as opportunities arise. Rather than prescribing a single path forward, the plan emphasizes flexibility, coordination, and shared responsibility, providing a roadmap for aligning future decisions with the community's long-term goals.
