The battle for Main Street

AMERICAN FORK — Massive commercial developments such as The Meadows may have moved the economic heart of American Fork to the city's outskirts, but the battle for the city's soul is being fought downtown on Main Street.

It's a familiar story: Big-box developments such as Super Wal-Mart and Home Depot provide welcome boosts to local tax revenues. Some Utah Valley residents, however, worry about what that is doing to smaller, locally owned businesses along Main Street.

"Downtown is one of the most fragile areas in the economic development of a city," said Linda Walton, Main Street Manager in American Fork.

As the sprawling Meadows development continues to expand, some merchants have bypassed downtown for warmer economic climes in the new development.

The Meadows started with two stores — Wal-Mart and Home Depot — when it launched in 2002. Now, it houses dozens of businesses, including a Starbucks, banks, a movie theater, restaurants, bookstores and pet shops.

As a result, some Main Street businesses, like the old True Value Hardware store, have closed.

However, many insist, Main Street is by no means in its death throes.

Walton said the occupancy rate is still very high — five of downtown's 75 business sites are vacant — but the fear is that the ever-accelerating growth rate in the north county area will make the situation worse if proactive steps are not taken.

And the stores of Main Street, from the bookstores to the karate dojos to the auto parts stores — most of them locally owned — would be the ones to suffer.

To the end of revitalizing Main Street, a number of businesses in American Fork came together a few years ago to form Downtown American Fork Inc.

The city also joined the state's Main Street Program, which provides cities with strategies for updating and protecting their Main Street, from architectural and streetscape advice to attracting new business. The program also has limited funds available to make matching grants for cities for downtown improvements.

But some American Fork business leaders are frustrated with the overall lack of progress on the project. The City Council, they say, is doing nothing.

Walton said she has been "baffled" by the City Council's lack of response to three proposals submitted by Downtown American Fork Inc. That inaction, she said, combined with the continuing growth of the Meadows, is putting Main Street in precarious position.