The city of Durango is assembling a focus group of residents and business owners to give feedback about the controversial Downtown’s Next Step project.

A call to applicants was put out by the city on Monday and closed at the end of day Friday, according the news release.

Downtown’s Next Step is a project to turn downtown Durango into a more pedestrian friendly Main Avenue from Fifth Street to 14th Street, with widened sidewalks, longer crosswalks and improved curbs, as well as more trees and upgraded bus stops.

But some people are concerned the project will taint the historical nature or character of downtown Durango, make it harder for traffic and emergency vehicles to navigate Main Avenue, and impede access to local businesses while construction occurs.

From the outset of the project, business owners revolted. Eventually, a list of 75 or so businesses objecting to initial design concepts circulated around the community and the city.

Durango Multimodal Manager Devin King said in May that some business owners have since gained a stronger understanding of the project.

In a news release announcing the call for focus group applicants, the city said downtown Durango has a need for larger sidewalks, crosswalks and other pedestrian spaces, as well as slower traffic speeds.

The focus group being finalized will be asked for feedback about design changes to the Downtown’s Next Step project that were initiated after other public feedback was gauged in a questionnaire.

According to the city, the ideal focus group will consist of four business owners, four at-large residents and at least one resident of La Plata County. The city is seeking feedback about the design changes to Downtown’s Next Step based on responses to a questionnaire previously conducted by the city.

That online questionnaire asked residents to rank various features based on their preference. “Expanded pedestrian space,” “water quality,” “replacing aging utilities” and “accessibility” were among the options presented to the public.

The city received more than 700 responses to the questionnaire, according to the release.

“Feedback received from the focus group will be used to further inform design changes such as length of curb extensions, loading zones, number of accessible parking spaces, tree locations, and amenities,” the call to applicant says. “The design is currently at the preliminary design stage and is being progressed to 60% design plans later this summer and early fall.”

King said in the release that the city received a lot of feedback about the preliminary design for Phase 1 through the questionnaire.

“We think a focus group is a great opportunity to include community members in the process of interpreting that data and how it informs the design,” he said.

cburney@durangoherald.com