Downtown’s Next Step – an effort to update downtown Durango with wider sidewalks, more outdoor space and slower vehicle speeds – remains as contentious as ever after a demonstrative pedlet was installed this week in the 600 block of Main Avenue.
The pedlet consists of a temporary, albeit widened sidewalk in front of Old Barrel Tea Co., Fuzziwig's Candy and Good Karma across the street from Strater Hotel.
Those who regularly walk Main Avenue might recognize the new addition. But to the uninitiated, it is easy to miss; it resembles an existing bump-out in front of Fired Up Pizzeria at 735 Main Ave. and Maria’s Bookshop at 960 Main Ave.
The pedlet, which was installed Tuesday and Wednesday, appears to be the same make and materials as the existing bump-outs outside the pizzeria and the bookshop. Soggy cigarette butts already laid wedged between the hinges of the large foldable panels that make up the pedlet.
But the aesthetics aren’t the point of the temporary installations. Rather, it is the function, said Tom Sluis, city spokesman.
The city spent $400,000 to install the pedlet and additional demonstrations to be put in place next week and later this month. They will remain in place until November, according to the city.
The pedlets are representative of wider sidewalks proposed in the Next Step project, Durango Multimodal Manager Devin King said in a news release.
Sluis said the idea is the widened pedestrian zone allows unimpeded passage if businesses were to utilize storefront space to display products or host seating for customers. And the widened sidewalks would accommodate heavier pedestrian traffic during the busy summer tourist season.
Other features to be demonstrated later this month include temporary curb extensions at the intersections of College Drive, Seventh Street and Eighth Street. Their purpose is to show the safety benefits of shortened crosswalks, “making pedestrians more visible, and slowing speeds of vehicles,” the release said. “They will also provide an opportunity to observe delivery trucks and other larger vehicles’ turning radiuses downtown.”
The curb extensions will remain in place, “in some capacity through winter,” according to the city.
Snow removal will be tested with the extensions in place to one extent or another through the winter.
The Next Step program proposes similar permanent features on Main Avenue from Fifth Street to 14th Street, in addition to new trees in expanded sidewalks, bioswales, and improved trolley stops and curb ramps, according to the city. Overall, the intent is to make Main Avenue safer and more pedestrian friendly.
But many Main Avenue business owners are wary, afraid such changes will hurt access to their stores during and post construction. For at least two years, a letter to Durango City Council signed by 75 business owners voicing objection to the project has circulated. It’s regularly mentioned at city meetings when Downtown’s Next Step comes up.
At a Durango Business Improvement District meeting Friday morning, BID Director Tim Walsworth said a recent survey of businesses jointly conducted by the BID and the Durango Chamber of Commerce in the last couple of months showed 50% of businesses oppose or somewhat oppose the project.
Forty percent of businesses are supportive or somewhat supportive of Next Step, he said. The remaining 10% are undecided.
Parking, turning radiuses and access to stores appear to be top concerns of Main Avenue businesses.
Old Barrel Tea Co. Manager Zaiyah Slowtalker said parking is a big concern for folks.
According to the city’s conceptual streetscape design, 48 parking spaces were removed from downtown Main Avenue in 2021 to accommodate bump-outs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bump-outs have become less common, but at that time 48 parking spaces were lost. The conceptual design suggests 47 parking spaces would have sidewalks built over them.
Slowtalker said Next Step would improve the flow of pedestrian traffic and generally liven up downtown.
But other businesses remain skeptical.
Susan Page at La Plata on Main, a boutique, said narrower streets will put more pedestrians’ safety at risk as they are entering and exiting their vehicles parallel parked on Main Avenue. And she said additional convenient parking needs to be built before the city takes any more parking spaces away.
“That's what everyone who comes in here tells us,” she said. “Parking. Especially locals. They don't come downtown because of the parking.”
Alyssa Steinlauf, owner of Main Mercantile at 643b Main Ave., said she isn’t for or against the project at this point, but she has concerns and wants more information. She worries that if adjacent restaurants or businesses have seating at their storefronts, people will walk around the tables and right past her store.
And, she’s a renter, she said. If Next Step is realized, the temporary construction itself would potentially cut access to Main Mercantile, and she would be losing money that would help pay employees and rent.
Darin Baker, a delivery driver for Parkers Workplace Solutions based in Farmington, said parking is a challenge for delivery drivers. The city’s conceptual streetscape designs for Next Step retain loading zones where they are currently located, but Baker said parking is still challenging when there’s not a loading zone close to his location.
“Parking in Durango is such a beast,” he said. “Everybody in Durango knows that. That's not a secret.”
He said the project seems like it would have minimal impact on his own day-to-day business. But larger delivery services such as UPS and beer deliverers might have a harder time using middle lanes on a narrowed street.
The city is hosting a public Engage Durango forum all about Downtown’s Next Step in September. The first phase of the project design is budgeted at $520,000. City representatives have said they don’t know the total cost to construct the project, which would be carried out block by block in phases. Its funding source is the 2015 half-cent sales tax.
Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2026, pending City Council approval.
cburney@durangoherald.com
