News from Around the State: District 5

Small Area Planning in Perry

The City of Perry strives to build upon recent development success, achieved through the assistance of Small Area Planning (SAP) processes. In 2025, Perry City Council adopted the Northside Drive Small Area Plan, which laid the ground work for new types of mixed use development, and modern building typologies for an underutilized corridor on the northern periphery of Perry’s Historic Downtown. Additional loft apartment construction is now in the permitting process, continuing this momentum.

More recent public engagement across the City’s Main Street Advisory Board, Historic Preservation Commission, Downtown Development Authority and a public workshop, has garnered new input relating to another location, however this time adjacent to the downtown core’s Southern boundaries.

By definition, a small area plan is a planning tool applied to a defined, smaller portion of a city or region, typically ranging from half a square mile to a few square miles. Unlike comprehensive plans, which provide broad, citywide guidance, SAPs focus on the unique characteristics, challenges, and opportunities of a specific area, allowing for tailored solutions that reflect local conditions.

The Jernigan Street corridor represents a unique opportunity within the City of Perry, offering potential for expansion of what residents would even consider “Downtown.” Goals of the process include prioritizing pedestrian connectivity, zoning enhancements, and to encourage economic development across a greater range of business varieties. A small area plan tailored specifically to Jernigan Street provides a focused roadmap to guide future growth, while preserving the corridor’s “funky” industrial character with promise to create community value in the City’s central gathering areas. In seeing the tangible investments which followed last year’s Northside Drive process, envisioning Jernigan Street’s next evolution is certainly within sight.

Why Focus on Jernigan Street?

Jernigan Street serves as an important local corridor with a mix of residential, commercial, civic uses and building typologies. Much of the project area is currently zoned M-2, General Industrial, however is not largely being utilized as such. Its location and existing infrastructure make it well-positioned for reinvestment and enhancement. However, like many legacy corridors, it faces challenges such as:

• Aging infrastructure 
• Underutilized or vacant properties 
• Pedestrian and mobility limitations 
• Need for aesthetic and streetscape improvements
• Zoning limitations 
• Lack of public lighting

A small area plan helps address these issues in a targeted yet holistic manner, while also ensuring compatible development patterns alongside surrounding neighborhoods.

The Planning Process

The City will replicate a structured and inclusive process, as to what succeeded on Northside Drive. Proposed plans will, however, directly reflect the unique circumstances of Jernigan Street as a quasi-industrial area, and as a pedestrian extension of Perry’s existing walkable Downtown.

City staff have begun evaluating current land use and zoning, traffic calming opportunities, existing roadway conditions, sidewalks, lighting, and utilities (or in some cases, lack thereof), as well as property ownership and vacancy patterns.

Public input is essential to any plan’s long term success, and has begun being solicited in 2026 through neighborhood workshops and stakeholder discussions with relevant groups and property owners.

Developing a shared vision through these discussions will lead staff to propose future land use recommendations, streetscape, mobility and beautification concepts which will help guide a consistent redevelopment and infill strategy.

Once drafted, an encompassing plan will be reviewed by the Perry Planning Commission and considered for adoption by Perry City Council following public hearings (projected for early summer, 2026). Contrary to other planning documents, it is anticipated the Jernigan Street SAP will be easy to digest – likely no more than 2 pages of easy-to-read language, increasing the likelihood of the plan maintaining relevance across non-planner audiences.

While zoning and land development outcomes are certainly top of mind, a focused, community-driven approach ensures that Jernigan Street evolves in a way that reflects the vision and needs of Perry’s residents. Other potential public investments which may follow will be prioritized in their ability to balance growth, preservation, and long-term vitality.

The City of Perry is also conducting a city-wide Comprehensive Plan update this year, which is anticipated to be considered for adoption in early 2027. Small Area Planning processes such as these are understood to be targeted initiatives with a limited scope of focus, and supplementary to the bigger picture city-wide plan.