- Home
- At a Glance
-
-
About Us
-
The goal of the St. Charles Active River Project is to create a lively riverfront environment and experience that is the centerpiece of the community.
-
-
- Purpose
- News & Events
- VIDEOS
- Contact Us
Master Plan
Strategy
Brand The image of St. Charles, “Pride of the Fox”, is closely aligned with the river. Further emphasis on the river by refining the platform, tools and communications will only strengthen the community’s position and create a more recognizable, authentic brand.
- Emphasize the river (programming and communications)
- Emphasize the package (multi-dimensional, lifestyle and visitor appeal)
- Promote new features as they come on line (must be authentic)
- Target audience (local, regional)
Refine existing platform, tools, and communications
Emphasize the river (programming and communications)
The City of St. Charles is known as the “Pride of the Fox” and the identity of the community is closely tied to the river. Emphasize this fact through all programming and communications among the various, agencies, organizations, and groups to project a consistent, coordinated message.
Emphasize the package (multi-dimensional, lifestyle and visitor appeal)
It’s all about the river but there’s more to it than just the river. Emphasize the community as a whole, its diversity, lifestyle and visitor appeal as an active river community.
Promote new features as they come on line (must be authentic)
It is important to get the word out and promote new features as they come on line to create interest and attract users. Promotions must be authentic and not oversell an idea which could lead to a disappointing experience and loss of return visitors.
Target audience (local, regional)
Riverfront improvements benefit the local community and economy, creating a better place for its citizens. Targeting a larger regional audience can strengthen the reputation of the community and lead to continued growth and prosperity.
Strategy
Momentum The master plan outlines many improvement recommendations. It can be challenging to determine where to begin and how to accomplish meaningful improvements. By acting systematically and incrementally, the community can gain and sustain momentum to accomplish the project goals, objectives and standards.
Advocate the strategy
- Target audience (local, regional)
- Prioritize river and riverfront across partner organizations
- Align and coordinate organizational initiatives
- Leverage water quality to facilitate dam modification
- Commit to systematic, incremental capital improvements
Prioritize the river and riverfront across partner organizations
Various stakeholder agencies, organizations and groups have a number of competing interests to consider. Prioritizing these needs is not easy. The partner organizations must make the river and riverfront improvements a priority to gain and sustain momentum to meet the goals and objectives.
Align and coordinate organizational initiatives
If organizations make the river a priority, the next step is to align and coordinate specific initiatives among the organizations. Each organization has their own interests, but by coordinating together, multiple agencies can align their priorities and leverage river related initiatives.
Leverage water quality to facilitate dam modification
The time is now to align the City’s interests with the pending water quality regulatory requirements. Coordination between the partner organizations and the regulatory agencies can lead to implementation of the recommendations as outlined in the master plan.
Commit to systematic, incremental capital improvements
Some of the improvements such as the dam modification are complicated and expensive, and will take a number of years to complete. It is important to get started on these larger scale projects now, although it is just as important to commit to systematic, incremental advancement of a variety of smaller projects on a continuous basis.
