As one of the fastest-growing communities in North Dakota, the City of Horace has experienced rapid suburban development while seeking to preserve the historic small-town character that residents cherish. Partnering with SRF Consulting Group, Metro COG, and the City of Horace, Tallgrass Landscape Architecture co-led the development of the Horace Downtown Neighborhood Plan—a comprehensive, actionable framework designed to guide land use, multimodal connectivity, urban design, and downtown revitalization over the next 20+ years.
The planning process addressed growth pressure by establishing clear community guardrails, identifying right-sized infrastructure solutions, and prioritizing investments in the city's historic core along Main Street. Grounded in extensive public engagement—including citywide surveys, stakeholder workshops, and pop-up events at the annual Bean Days festival—the plan establishes five core guiding principles: preserving rural small-town identity, creating multimodal accessibility, prioritizing utility maintenance, maintaining a high quality of life, and fostering inclusive community activities.
Key landscape architecture, urban design, and planning contributions included:
Downtown Concept & Heritage Celebration: Developed concepts that honor Horace's 150-year history by repurposing the iconic historic grain elevator site as a central civic gathering space. The design incorporates a farmers' market pavilion, flexible event lawn, Veteran’s Memorial, and human-scale commercial infill limited to two stories.
Complete Streets & Multimodal Framework: Designed a tiered Complete Streets policy framework and street typology system tailored to small-town contexts. The strategy equips key corridors (such as Main Street, Wall Avenue, and Park Drive) with continuous shared-use paths, wide pedestrian sidewalks, yield streets, and enhanced crossings to safely connect neighborhoods, schools, and parks.
Context-Sensitive Placemaking & Urban Design: Formulated streetscape toolboxes, traffic-calming strategies (such as curb extensions, raised crosswalks, and RRFB beacons), and incremental "tactical placemaking" projects—such as crosswalk murals, pop-up marketplaces, and decorative street lighting—to activate downtown organically.
Growth Management & Policy Alignment: Established form-based zoning guidelines, fiscal impact analysis protocols, and land-use strategies to prevent sprawling "strip commercial" development, supporting compact, economically productive investments that protect surrounding agricultural and riparian greenways along the Sheyenne River.
The full plan is available on the City Community Development page.