Durango's Downtown's Next Step, a project that reimagines downtown Main Avenue with wider sidewalks and pedestrian-friendly features, still does not have a majority support, at least according to a live survey held Tuesday morning.
In a poll conducted right before a Tuesday morning meeting with Main Avenue business owners, 64% of on-the-spot respondents, or 33 people out of 51 respondents, said they oppose the project.
After the meeting, where another live poll was conducted with 88 respondents, 58%, or 51 people, said they opposed Next Step. Twenty-six percent of respondents said they support the project, while 9% and 4% said they “somewhat oppose” and “somewhat support” the project, respectively.
The surveys were held at an 8 a.m. Tuesday meeting at the Fort Lewis College Center for Innovation at the Main Mall at 835 Main Ave.
City councilors, business and building owners, and interested residents attended the meeting, with attendance nearing 100 people.
Featured speakers for and against Next Step took the microphone, and city staff members presented information in key areas of impacts such as parking, construction, access to stores, curb extensions and preservation of historic downtown character. They also tackled big-picture subjects like financing, timeline and necessity.
Downtown Main Avenue business owner of Tippy Canoe Sharon Taylor said the pedlets installed by the city (for which the city paid about $400,000) gave a “false impression” that confused people about what the project is supposed to be.
She said Durango has already been named by Time Magazine as one of the most walkable cities or towns in Colorado, and the proposed Next Step will turn the city into the next Grand Junction, Aspen, Boulder or Denver.
Parking downtown is a pain and everyone knows it, she said. Permanently extended sidewalks would only continue or exacerbate the issue.
Downtown Main Avenue’s Evan Schertz, owner of Maria’s Bookshop, said he enjoys pedestrianism because it “cultivates pedestrian connections; people are more likely to spend money when they are walking about.”
He said Next Step is an opportunity to invest into downtown Durango and the project has been in one form or another in talks for decades.
Jonell Jones, who works for fiber internet company Clearnetworx, told The Durango Herald she attended the meeting to keep tabs on the community conversation. She said she has heard opposition to the Next Step proposal.
Jones said she has noticed pedestrians already presume drivers will accommodate their crossing at sidewalks and intersections, whether they have the right of way or not.
“They don’t even look, they’re just like, ‘Oh, people will be looking out for me and my safety, so I don’t have to worry,’ like, making assumptions that the (drivers) are going to see them,” she said.
She said even her friends have the same attitude.
“She (Jones’ friend) told me that she does the exact same thing, where she’s just like, ‘I don’t even look, I just start going on the sidewalk.’ Yeah, I’m glad that you think other people are more concerned about your safety than yourself,” she said.
She said pedestrians need to be more mindful and their safety isn’t completely in the hands of drivers.
“I don’t think it (Next Step) is going to help at all,” she said.
But she said the infrastructure upgrades, or maintenance below Main Avenue, sound good.
Ed Kileen, Grassburger restaurant owner, said he is not opposed to Next Step improving downtown; but he is concerned about how that decision-making process is playing out.
He asked about proposed parking reductions and what that means to employees of his eatery, how quickly construction will be done, and suggested that because many downtown Main Avenue businesses contribute so much to city sales taxes, the whole project should be slowed down to account for their consideration.
“Having 25 people in our restaurant as employees is challenging for them to find parking,” he said. “It’s challenging for them to get to work. We don’t want them parking on Main Avenue. We don’t want them parking on some of the side streets. We like them parking farther away. But parking is an issue, and customers that come in from out of state expect to be able to pull up to businesses to frequent those businesses.
“There’s the change of character of downtown. How much are we going to do it and how quickly are we going to do it?” he added.
Keith Dougherty, city engineer, said the city has plans for water and sewer main line maintenance below Main Avenue, which will require reconnections to buildings and businesses.
The city has plans to upgrade “water, sewer, gas and electricity” lines, he said. That work will need to be done sooner or later, no matter what. It’s just a fact.
“What that means is that we’re also going to need reconnecting to … each businesses that has service,” he said.
He said some businesses have already had repairs or upgrades with connections, and the city will try to use those as much as possible, which could reduce those impacts to businesses.
There are state requirements to meet with utility infrastructure, however, and those requirements must be met, he said.
How much would such repairs or maintenance or upgrades cost? It’s unknown at this time, he said.
“I know this is hard to hear, but we do not have an accurate number right now,” he said. “We usually wait until we get to 90% (design) before we have an estimate. (Then) we can share that with the public.”
Durango Transportation Director Sarah Hill said the total design cost from Fifth Street to 14th Street is $1.3 million, much of which would come from grants, with the total cost to the city being $680,000 from the 2015 sales tax dedicated to bicycle and pedestrian projects.
Construction costs are a different story, however, she said.
“We’re just too early to make a guess,” she said. ”Any cost range that you might have heard is not based on fact.“
cburney@durangoherald.com
