Description

The City of Durango invites residents to provide feedback on the design for Downtown’s Next Step at four meetings in June to help ensure the design best meets the community’s needs. The four meetings are designed to include the perspectives of specific stakeholder groups. Each meeting will be structured the same, with the same information presented. The city will give a presentation on the feedback we receive in the July Engage Durango Forum. All meetings are open to the public, but residents are asked to attend one of the following meetings that best matches the perspective they would like to provide: 

• Downtown business owners - Wednesday, June 4, 8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. at the Fort Lewis College Center for Innovation, 835 Main Ave., Suite 225. 
• Downtown business employees - Tuesday, June 10, 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. at 11th Street Station (Main Avenue and 11th Street). 
• Residents meeting - Monday, June 16, 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. at the Durango Public Library, 1900 East Third Ave.
• Accessibility meeting - Monday, June 23, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. at the Durango Public Library.

City Council in 2024 directed staff through Resolution R-2024-0054 to finish the design and provide a cost estimate but to not move forward on construction. The plans are currently at the 30% completion level. The design is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The City of Durango wants to understand the perspectives of all downtown users to create a street design that incorporates business needs, improves experiences, and enhances safety and functionality. Staff is seeking feedback on aspects of the design including flexible blocks, surface elements, sidewalk width, length of curb extensions, loading zones, and amenity spaces.

The completion of the design of Downtown’s Next Step project will balance community needs and desires to increase accessibility, enhance safety, and improve essential infrastructure. The completion of the surface/streetscape improvements is necessary to inform the location for utilities in the utility design. The underground infrastructure like water and sewer lines are past their useful service life and are in dire need of replacement. These utility improvements provide the city with the opportunity to update the downtown Main Ave streetscape at the same time and are being designed concurrently. 

The design of the streetscape improvements are funded by a Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) Main Street LIVE grant and 2015 Half Cent Sales and Use Tax funds. For more information, visit Engage Durango at: https://engage.durangoco.gov/downtowns-next-step