Springfield City Hall will soon be receiving, as early as yesterday afternoon, a DVD of videotaped footage of last month’s Urban Land Institute panel presentation, including both the formal portion as well as the Q&A that followed.

The DVD was being copied and delivered courtesy of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. Proceedings of the September 29 event were videotaped by local station WGBY. I have been wondering how and when such footage would be released, and this seems to be a first stage.

The general idea is to get the DVD into the hands of city employees and neighborhood associations. Presumably, there are lines of access to the business community via the Chambers of Commerce and the Economic Development Council of Western Mass, which are both key players in the steering committee that formed pre-ULI visit, and continue to be involved as part of the follow-up.

Tim Brennan, executive director of the PVPC, told me, "The group that David Panagore convened, that was sort of the pre-game warm-up team, as I thought of it, was immediately asked to stay together, to help now with the back-end. [The idea is] now that there’s this report, let’s try to get moving right away."

The release of the DVD is a way to share the process and recommendations stemming from the ULI panel visit with those people who may not have attended the presentation or followed the visit in the media reports. Brennan said, "We need to build an army of folks that are citizens, department heads; folks from inside the city, and outside the city, that are all trying to roll up their sleeves and move ahead."

The Republican reported that some form of a city tour will take place for city department heads. Brennan explained to me that this tour is similar to the one ULI panelists enjoyed on September 26, but will be smaller in scope, covering the areas the ULI focused on in its development recommendations.

To recap, those would include, at the very least, the old federal building (PDF) downtown, which will empty when the new federal courthouse (model at left) on State Street is ready; the former Gemini site in the South End; and 31 Elm Street (PDF) on Court Square. Perhaps they’ll also visit the York Street jail along the southern riverfront, to bid it farewell.

Not wanting just to twiddle thumbs until December, when the ULI panel’s full and highly-detailed written report is expected to arrive, the task at hand appears to be to generate some unity of vision.