Downtown Strategic Plan

In January 2016, POW! Strategies, Inc. completed a Downtown Strategic Plan for Downtown Dearborn and the DDDA based on the City’s Master Plan with over 100 community members, partners, government and DDDA board leadership. Its key goals were to develop a cohesive main street – Michigan Avenue, increase the regional destination appeal of Downtown Dearborn, and lay the groundwork for the long-term vision. 

The Strategic Plan identified five key transformational strategies following the Main Street Approach to revitalization:

• Image – Shape, embrace and communicate an image that reflects who we are as a community.
• Mobility – Build a community infrastructure that supports all modes of transportation.
• Cohesive Community – Unite our community across geographic and socioeconomic barriers by rallying around an integrated vision of Downtown Dearborn
• Next Generation Appeal – Build a downtown that next-generation consumers, residents and entrepreneurs value.  
• Innovative Retail Diversity – Attract and retain businesses that reflect the Downtown Dearborn image and offer a wide range of experiences for consumers, unique to our downtown.

Each of the strategies defined objectives in order to meet the goal of a cohesive Michigan Avenue, which can be found here.

A comprehensive branding initiative came out of the Strategic Plan and was completed in 2019 gathering a vision for the city as a whole and the downtown through a multi-faceted community outreach approach. The DDDAs then adopted a memorandum of understanding in 2019 that set forth how the two DDAs would collaborate to create a vibrant Downtown Dearborn experience for all. Since 2020, a Downtown Vision Plan has been in development which re-engaged key stakeholders from the previous two planning initiatives, as well as new community-wide input. This Vision Plan brings together goals from previous planning efforts, the vision from the branding plan, the memorandum of understanding and other studies for a unified vision that further grounds a 20-year strategy for Downtown Dearborn. Learn more about the draft Vision Plan.