Who wants trees?
During our streetscape planning process we received over 500 comments through 9 focus groups, online surveys, and from various events on Colfax, and one of the top requests was, WE WANT TREES! This near-universal response wasn’t a surprise and we are beginning to design the protective tree guards so that small trees on Colfax won’t be accidentally (or intentionally) damaged.
And, this is how we introduce Guiding Principle #7: Flexibility and Phasing of our community Streetscape vision for Colfax from the State Capitol to East HS. This is relevant right now as we phase-in elements of our plan while simultaneously being flexible with implementation.
Here’s one way to consider it. Remember that time when you started that project and it went exactly as planned all the way through? Right. That never happens, especially when multiple people, companies, and funding streams are involved.
We built into the plan the need and ability to implement the elements one piece at a time. The Colfax Ave BID is not the only one working on Colfax. RTD is installing new bus shelters; the Department of Public Works is improving intersections and planning for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT); Community Planning and Development (CPD) is working with the neighborhoods on Area Plans; businesses are improving their businesses and property owners are developing or improving their properties.
The good news about phasing-in and coordinating with City agencies is that it can leverage money from those projects and thereby save our ratepayers’ funds to go towards other projects. The flipside is that it can take longer. As work as closely as possible with all these entities while adapting to the external forces beyond our control.
This is also another way to say: we know you want trees, but be patient with us. They are in the plan, but we don’t want to plant new trees on Colfax that may get destroyed during construction for the BRT and intersection improvements.
Yet, we are still making substantial progress with City agencies and private developers so that we can determine where to plant trees so that they would not be compromised during the construction that is out of our control. Some elements to come on-line in the near future are “wayfinding” kiosks and a 7-foot tall, three-dimensional Colfax Ave sculpture. Also in the design phase are Colfax Ave-branded bike racks.
And, while we complete installations like these, we continue moving through our implementation list that correlates with the following four phases: Pre Construction; Construction Phase One; Construction Phase Two; and Ongoing.
In the Pre Construction phase we have been doing some designing and documenting for the first construction phase. It also includes establishing funding mechanisms for implementing certain expensive features that cannot be funded by the City or others. We accomplished a good deal of this in 2017 when we successfully leveraged $20 million in the GO Bond for Colfax improvements — a sum we share with the districts of the three other Colfax BIDs.
Construction Phase One is generally defined by safety and identity improvements. Wayfinding signs, the sculpture, bike racks, etc. are examples of this. In our previous blogs about safety, we explained how we are also adding more pedestrian-scale street lighting for greater safety. While some other elements of safety like, corner “bulb-outs” and intersection improvements will happen during BRT construction in about 5 years, there has been other good progress. Colfax was repaved in 2017. Bus shelters are being replaced as we speak to include installing security cameras, shelter lighting, and real-time information about bus arrivals.
Construction Phase Two can also be described as the big, audacious era. It is in this timeframe in which the BRT and substantial streetscape and intersection safety improvements will occur. These are GO Bond-funded projects, and mainly out of our control. This money must be spent within 10 years (by the end of 2017), and current projections have BRT construction beginning in about 5 years. The $20 million earmarked for the four Colfax BIDs will be for pedestrian improvements within the BID areas.
Bond projects must be permanent, therefore no improvements could be done “today” if they needed to be “ripped up” in 5 years when the BRT begins construction. This is why we need to be flexible so that we can ensure we build and implement what the community wants without fear that it will get damaged or destroyed by major construction in 5 years.
The Ongoing Phase intends to be opportunistic as new private development begins. By working with the City, property owners, and the developers, we work towards sharing branding elements as well as including other streetscape elements from patios to green space to affordable, workforce housing.
It is probably not too difficult to imagine how all the coordinating to implement these plans, and to do it as quickly as possible while leveraging additional financial resources can make this a really fun effort. Reading, or perusing the Colfax Streetscape Master Plan would likely be enjoyable, so please consider checking it out. Also, it is worth mentioning that building out and phasing in the streetscape vision also entails the plans to maintain all the new features and assets that the BID will own on Colfax. In the next and final blog about our Streetscape Guiding Principles, we’ll discuss our maintenance strategy. Stay tuned.