Dwtn Huntsville is contained mostly within the Lincoln/Monroe/Williams boulevard loop. Good urban fabric of mostly low and medium rise historic buildings in the core of Downtown around the court house and between Jefferson and Greene Streets. Out of this area, the urban fabric breaks down with lots of surface parking lots and autocentric uses. The Big Spring park development just west of the core is a decent modern appendage to the Dwtn core. Nice walking paths and park around a lake along with newer office/residential/hotel development. Big Springs, however, felts pretty suburban office park like. Some quality mixed-use development is popping up along Jefferson near the historic core of Dwtn. Hopefully more of this type of development is built to better fill out the dead spaces of Dwtn and expand its vibrant core.

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Nice in-tact historic core around the Court house and between Jefferson and Greene Streets for several blocks.
* Big Spring provides a great dwtn park seamlessly connected to the heart of Dwtn at Courthouse Square.
* Great cultural amenities typical of most southern Dwtns. More atypical is the dense concentration of museums.
* Decent retail amenities including the typical dwtn stores of banks, boutiques, creative stores, dessert shops, and gyms.
* Good parks.
 * Lots of early- mid 1800 century sites have been preserved.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* So  downtown residential base. About average for a southern Dwtn. Certainly is poised for more residential growth.
* Missing major retail amenities like a supermarket, drug store and Dwtn library and post office.
* Not a huge jobs presence. Office bldgs are pretty limited.
* Lots of surface parking & autocentric uses outside of the core of Dwtn.