Unity, Resilience, and Renewal: Investing in the Heart of Louisville

Reflection and Renewal in a Historic Downtown

Amidst the recent challenges faced by Louisville, Colorado, including COVID-19 and Marshall Fire, the community is undergoing a period of reflection and renewal. While the fire has left profound scars, it also presents an opportunity for the community to rebuild its spirit and identity in downtown. The 2024 Downtown Vision Plan emerges as a beacon of optimism in this context, guiding Louisville towards a future that honors its history while embracing progress.

Building on successful programs like the Main Street closure and parklet initiatives during COVID-19, Louisville is poised for revitalization. The plan recognizes that investing in downtown spaces goes beyond practicality—it’s about fostering resilience and healing. These public areas serve as gathering spots for residents to come together, celebrate, and rebuild. By strategically enhancing streetscapes and public amenities, the plan aims to transform downtown Louisville into a lively community hub.

The context within which the Downtown Vision Plan unfolds is one of rich history, vibrant culture, and entrepreneurial spirit. For decades, downtown Louisville has served as the heart and soul of the community—a place where residents gather to dine, shop, and celebrate, where businesses thrive, and where the spirit of innovation and creativity flourishes. However, raising vacancies and business turnover has placed downtown Louisville in a difficult position. A future commuter rail line is also planned to help connect downtown Louisville with the rest of the region. In response, the Downtown Vision Plan seeks to build upon the city’s strengths while addressing its evolving needs, challenges, and opportunities, by putting public investment first to guide and inspire private investment.

‘From Pilot to Permanent’

The project team employed principles of activation and placemaking to craft a vision that is not only visually appealing but also functional, adaptable, and reflective of the community’s values and aspirations. Building off the success of its existing parklette program, the project team took that pilot and sought to make its benefits permanent—’from pilot to permanent’. This encompassed designing new plaza spaces and pedestrian-friendly streetscapes. From straight-forward design changes like sidewalk-widening, adding street trees, and more café and restaurant seating space, to bold design moves to convert under-utilized City property to a new vibrant downtown plaza and a curbless street conversion, the Plan aims to cultivate a more inviting and comfortable downtown environment, encouraging both residents and visitors to linger and engage. The project also integrates resilient and sustainable design elements like porous parking stalls and rainwater collection areas in the streetscape. The aim was to ensure that downtown Louisville is prepared to confront future challenges while fostering a strong sense of connection and belonging among its residents.

A Grassroots Planning Process

What sets the Downtown Vision Plan apart is its emphasis on community engagement and collaboration. Recognizing that the best ideas often emerge from the collective wisdom of its residents, the plan embodies a bottom-up approach to urban planning, one that prioritizes inclusivity, transparency, and empowerment. Through a series of community meetings, workshops, and online forums, residents, business owners, city officials, and urban planners came together to share their visions, dreams, and concerns for downtown Louisville. Over 250 community residents and stakeholders participated. It is through this collective dialogue that the Downtown Vision Plan begins to take shape—a shared vision for the future that reflects the hopes and aspirations of the entire community.

To translate this collective vision into reality, the plan is structured around three Framework Themes, each containing specific goals and actions necessary for implementation:

• Link: Make downtown Louisville easily accessible to residents, employees, and visitors by encouraging connectivity to parks, trails, bike lanes, and nearby attractions. The plan aims to support better connectivity and sustainability. The goal is to develop transportation options that welcome people of all ages and abilities while promoting community health, environmental sustainability, and economic development.
• Amplify: Enhance downtown Louisville’s vibrancy and diversity by building on its existing strengths while introducing new programming and activation opportunities for year-round enjoyment. The goal is to focus on placemaking, public realm activation, and showcasing Louisville’s creativity and history. Updating streetscape amenities with unified materials, furnishings, and refreshed aesthetics is a key objective.
• Navigate: Emphasize effective wayfinding systems, advocating for a consistent strategy that includes clear and legible visual cues to enhance comprehension and navigation in complex spaces. The goal is to provide an easy-to-understand visual hierarchy to the information being provided, using symbols when possible and resisting the urge to over-direct and message.

Out of the Framework Themes came three transformative projects, which are already undergoing further study by the design team thanks to the momentum this project has created within the community:

• Steinbaugh Plaza: Transforming existing parking and underutilized paved areas around the iconic Pavilion into an active community node with all-season activations. Positioned at the intersection of Spruce Street and Front Street, it complements the activity of Main Street and serves as a new event and festival destination.
• Front Street: Concentrating short-term investments on creating a dynamic streetscape between Spruce Street and Walnut Street to support events like Street Faire and the Farmer’s Market. This conversion amplifies the best characteristics of downtown while creating a flexible, welcoming experience.
• Main Street: Creating additional amenity space for trees, landscaping, and seating. Intersection improvements and mid-block conversions aim to spur small improvements in the short-term, with long-term plans for a curbless street to further activate and transform Main Street.

…And It’s Already Happening!

A careful balance of vision with practicality has allowed the vision plan to move swiftly into implementation. As the city advances the implementation of the Downtown Vision Plan, it does so with a strong sense of optimism and resolve. The momentum generated by the Vision Plan has propelled the inclusion of the three transformative projects identified in the project into the City’s 2025 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), with portions of funding already secured from the Louisville Revitalization Commission (LRC), Louisville’s Urban Renewal Authority. Feasibility studies for Steinbaugh Plaza, Front Street, and Main Street improvements are currently being conducted by the Design Team. Thanks to effective, genuine community conversations and momentum building by the design team, this vision plan is not one that will not sit on a shelf!

Unity, Resilience, And Renewal

As Louisville embarks on this transformative journey, it prioritizes preserving its unique character and identity. From its historic Main Street to its vibrant commercial core, downtown Louisville blends tradition with modernity, embodying small-town charm with modern aspirations. The Downtown Vision Plan aims to honor this heritage while embracing progress and innovation, ensuring Louisville remains dynamic for generations to come.

The Downtown Vision Plan is pivotal, serving as both a roadmap for physical transformation and a testament to Louisville’s resilience and spirit. By promoting unity, economic recovery, and sustainability, it sets the stage for a brighter future where downtown Louisville becomes a model of liveliness and inclusivity in small-town Colorado. Ultimately, the Downtown Vision Plan isn’t just about rebuilding infrastructure—it’s about revitalizing community, commerce, and the very essence of Louisville itself.