Successful and attractive development corridors have consistent design themes and character and coordinate individual development sites into a coherent development pattern. The following corridor development concepts provide guidance to community leaders and developers on how to establish positive development patterns and overriding principles for planning the Highway 20 Corridor outside of the Historic District.
Nodal Development Pattern
Encourage denser and more highway-oriented development adjacent to limited highway access points and less dense and setback development at locations between access points. This development pattern takes advantage of the exposure and immediate access for businesses, allows for the appropriate location of a variety of uses, and reduces the negative impact on desired views from the highway to surrounding landscapes.
Viewshed Protection
Identify valuable viewsheds and protect them from unnecessary obstruction by new development. Concentrate development at access nodes and reduce development density in areas between, especially in areas of valuable viewsheds. Discourage development in areas of steep topography and drainage ways that afford valuable views.
Galena "Edge Corridor" Design Character
The design character of the Highway 20 Corridor outside of the Historic District should be unique, unified, high-quality, and create the image of a stable edge corridor for the historic community of Galena.
Encourage design character that respects the historic character of Galena yet does not confuse or detract from the authentic qualities of the original structures and urban fabric of the Galena National Register Historic District. Encourage a use of "traditional" design elements such as articulated facades, sloped roofs, multiple small windows, etc.
Also encourage design character that is consistent and unifying. Utilize a consistent use of brick in a limited palette of colors and design elements that make reference to the "rural" context such as white fences, field stone, fence and tree rows, etc.
Galena History
Integrate references to Galena's history into existing and future development. Appropriate topics would include Galena's "bigger picture" stories such as connections to the Mississippi River, mining, and the city's connections to the surrounding agricultural landscape. Galena's northwest Highway 20 Corridor is also historically significant as the former location of Galena's key intercity transportation route from the mid-1800s into the 1900s and the former"country estates" of prominent Galenians.