Gilbert Heritage District Design

Gilbert’s Heritage District (HD) is approximately 0.3 square miles in size and serves as the community’s downtown, entertainment district, and the cultural/historical center of the community. The intent of the HD Design Guidelines is to foster design excellence that encourages a dense, pedestrian-oriented, and adaptive environment that serves as the community’s historic living room. In 2010, Town Council adopted a set of HD Design Guidelines intended to:

• Build and expand on the Town’s existing policies as expressed in the General Plan, Land Development Code (LDC) and the HD Redevelopment Plan
• Maintain and build upon the unique sense of place and character in the HD
• Communicate the Town’s design expectations for the District to facilitate the review process for owners and applicants, the design review board and staff

In 2018, the Town Council adopted an updated HD Redevelopment Plan. The objective of the document is to identify and prioritize short, middle, and long-term goals for the District over the next 10 years. To align with the 2018 Redevelopment Plan, Gilbert initiated a review of the 2010 HD Design Guidelines by holding meetings with the Technical Committee which included Gilbert staff and a diverse steering committee. The intent of the review was to update the Design Guidelines to ensure they align with the 2018 Redevelopment Plan while also meeting the stated goals:

• Comprehensive and begin to solve challenges faced by all departments
• Easy to navigate
• Visually demonstrate desired development
• Efficient and succinct