Business View Magazine | September 2020

334 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2020 Kristen Fish-Peterson is the Executive Director of the Watertown Redevelopment Authority (RDA), established in 2016 for the purpose of carrying out blight elimination, slum clearance, and urban renewal projects in Watertown. In conjunction with the City, the RDA has done the heavy lifting on the new town square project, as well as coordinating proposals from private developers interested in purchasing and/or revitalizing downtown properties. In 2016, the citizens of Watertown voted to support an extensive renovation and expansion of the city’s library, which dates back to the late 1800s. “When consultants, like myself, come into communities, we often see the same pattern: resistance to change,” Fish-Peterson relates. “So, it takes true leadership, and between John David and Emily McFarland, we saw that leadership, plus a younger generation of citizens and investors who have stepped up. The first signal that things were going to happen was when the library referendum passed. That gave me confidence that there was a group of residents that really wanted bigger and better things for their community and they knew that they could do it. So, it’s really exciting to see the investment by the private sector, and the commitment and investment by the public sector. The Watertown Area Chamber of Commerce formed a committee called the Collaborative Team. One of the first conversations we had was that a lot of citizens were curious if we could do the town square and the library expansion or would it end up being either/or. And we created a special marketing campaign to let them know that it could be ‘and’ instead of ‘or.’” And so, among other projects that the city has taken on, the two main ones are the development of Watertown’s new town square and the expansion of its historic library. McFarland and Fish-Peterson talk about the twin projects: “The City of Watertown has the state’s longest historic downtown, and, by some miracle, there was a block of that downtown that housed little significant historical value,” McFarland Learn about our custom commercial asphalt solutions by visiting wolfpaving.com/FirstImpressions What message does your parking lot send about your business? Milwaukee: 262.965.2121 Madison: 608.249.7931