Agenda Date: 07/16/2024
Subject:
Title
Consideration of Project Downtown Process Modification to Explore Additional Design Options
Body
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From: |
James L. Becklenberg, City Manager |
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Prepared by: |
James L. Becklenberg, City Manager |
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Presentations: |
N/A |
PURPOSE:
The City Manager has heard interest from several city council members to explore additional design concepts as part of the ongoing Project Downtown process. In this study session, staff will outline the costs, time, and process implications of exploring the options. Staff is requesting direction from the Council on whether to modify the existing project to explore the additional options.
LONG-TERM OUTCOME(S) SERVED:
Robust and Resilient Economy; Vibrant Community with Rich Culture
DISCUSSION:
At its April 23rd study session, the City Council unanimously expressed support for the “Village” concept, one of three design concepts that had emerged from the Project Downtown process. This was the latest step in the process, which has been in progress for nearly two years, has been the subject of four city council study sessions, close partnership with the Littleton Downtown Development Authority (LDDA), an extensive stakeholder engagement process involving downtown merchants, city boards and commissions and approximately 20 other community organizations, all supplemented by a series of citywide surveys and community meetings reaching 1,720 residents in total. Based on survey results and stakeholder meetings, the Village Concept has received majority support as the favored option.
The Village Concept would deliver an elevated pedestrian experience include a “curbless” street between Prince and Curtice streets to create a flexible “festival space” that can be closed temporarily for events and entertainment at the city’s discretion, green infrastructure (including new street trees), a shared street at Nevada street, which would emphasize pedestrian travel over vehicle travel, enhanced Little’s Creek as a place for people to walk and gather, multimodal improvements at Prince Street, and facilities for safe bicycle parking to facilitate and encourage easier access for bicycles to downtown. Importantly, recommended Phase 1 projects would not necessarily preclude future city council’s vision and action for even more enhanced pedestrian focus for the Main St. spaces, as suggested by council members at this juncture of the process.
The project team (city staff and placemaking consultants) are currently finalizing the “preferred alternative,” which will use the Village Concept and incorporate other heavily favored features from the other design concepts developed throughout the process. Without process modification, the project team will complete the preferred alternative during September, present it and solicit final feedback from the LDDA in October and present it for council’s consideration in November. Assuming city council support for the final concept and designation and funding for a Phase 1 project, staff would move quickly into design in 2025 with plans to construct Phase 1 in 2026.
The City Manager has heard questions from several city councilmembers about exploring additional design concepts that would reduce lanes of travel on Main St. to a single lane or eliminating all vehicle traffic on Main St. These options would presumably allow Main St. to function exclusively as a pedestrian retail and entertainment destination.
Early consideration of additional design options
These options were evaluated early in project-formation discussions among the project team and city staff. It was determined at the time that these options, which dramatically reduce or remove traffic from Main St., represent a very different level of design options and would not be compatible with key project goals or the Project Downtown project for the following reasons:
• The project team recognized that options severely or entirely restricting traffic would require a much higher level of analysis regarding traffic management, economic viability, and the costs and feasibility of activating the public realm:
o Main Street currently handles, on average, more than 9,000 vehicle trips per day. The city’s traffic engineer advises that safely rerouting this traffic through other streets in the vicinity could require significant capacity and safety upgrades to numerous intersections in the vicinity of Main St. This work would have to be completed prior to implanting the travel-restricted Main St improvements and could cost between $10-20 million. Before committing to a solution like that, staff recommends completing traffic analysis on approximately eight other intersections in Littleton as well as the impacts on the north/south streets intersecting Main St. to determine feasibility of the alternatives and potential costs. The project team estimates this analysis would take approximately four months and cost $145,000.
o Equally important to the traffic analysis is understanding the potential impacts on the downtown economy and the feasibility of activating the resulting public space. Public retail and entertainment spaces require continuous programming and other artificial support to keep them vital and attractive, in addition to operations and maintenance of the space. Cities who contemplate such spaces typically conduct analysis in the planning phase with consultants with this expertise. Littleton city staff are aware of several consultants who could do this work. The preliminary cost estimate is $30,000 (if completed in conjunction with primary consulting contract); the work would likely take approximately six months and could be completed in parallel with the traffic analysis outlined above.
• International Fire Code (IFC) requires a 20’-0” width and 13’-6” height unobstructed roadway clearance for fire apparatus and ladder access. Anything within this clear zone must permit a fire apparatus to rollover or move through depending on South Metro Fire's specific preference of possible design solutions. South Metro Fire expressed concerns about the removal of one lane of travel on Main Street given the high queuing times (over 1000' from Santa Fe and Bowles) that are currently observed at peak travel times and could impact their ability to respond to an emergency. Parked cars would not be allowed in the clear zone.
• The Project Downtown budget is $420,000, and the existing project plan, consultant analysis and public engagement process and time were scoped accordingly. During the project formation stage, the project team recognized that fully exploring these options would require the additional analysis outlined above, plus additional public engagement work and could approximately double the budget that had been established.
• Given the criticality of downtown improvements to the LDDA’s Downtown Plan of Development, which was funded and approved by the city, and the fact that downtown improvements were a central commitment in the Measure 3A Sales Tax campaign, the project was expected to deliver achievable improvements with relatively immediate impact. The City’s Capital Improvement Sales Tax Fund has $10 million earmarked for Phase 1 of construction. Preliminary order-of-magnitude estimates for the severely or entirely restricted vehicle travel options are potentially five times that amount and could require 4-5 years to complete, given the additional planning time to arrive at the preferred option and the required ancillary intersection improvements that would need to occur prior to construction on Main St.
Cost and implications for exploring additional options now:
Staff estimates that total costs for fully exploring the additional options at this point in the Project Downtown planning process would add $465,000 to the existing $435,000 budget, as summarized below:
• Traffic analysis (described above) to determine requirements on intersections affected by the reduction or elimination of vehicle travel: $145,000
• Economic vitality and public space activation feasibility analysis: $30,000
• Additional public engagement consulting and LDDA coordination facilitation, at a level similar in the project so far: $190,000
• Additional city staff (1 FTE) to backfill current project manager duties planned for 2025, assuming that the plan would be completed in 2024: $100,000
The existing planning process anticipates completion by the end of November 2024. Staff estimates that fully exploring the additional options could extend the planning phase by approximately 13 months, with completion estimated for December 2025, with time allocated as follows:
• Coordination with LDDA on new project scope and contracting process (including Council approval, given the value): 3 months
• Traffic, economic, and space activation analysis (assuming simultaneous work): 6 months
• LDDA and public engagement (4 months)
BACKGROUND:
Staff began developing the project request for consulting proposals (RFP) in the summer of 2022, and presented the RFP for council’s direction in September 2022. Following is a list of the council discussions, stakeholder meetings and community surveys that have comprised the process so far:
Phase 1: Discovery and Visioning:
• 9/27/22 - City Council (Study Session) #1 - RFP review
• 5/03/23 - LDDA meeting #1 - Project overview, visioning
• 7/19/23 - LDDA meeting #2 - Existing conditions analysis review
• 7/25/23 - City Council (Study Session) #2 - Project overview and contract scope, visioning
• 7/26/23 - SWG meeting #1 - Project overview, visioning (25 attendees)
• 8/30/23 - Public meeting #1 - Online, visioning (66 attendees)
• 9/6/23 - Current - Virtual engagement - Story Map
• 9/19/23 - 11/06/23 - Virtual engagement - Survey #1, visioning (675 responses)
• 10/25/23 - SWG #2 - Existing conditions review, engagement recap (11 attendees)
• 11/1/23 - Small Group Workshop #1 (Mobility) - Visioning (8 attendees)
• 11/1/23 - Small Group Workshop #2 (Environment) - Visioning (10 attendees)
• 11/28/23 - City Council (Study Session) #3 - Existing conditions review, engagement recap
Phase 2: Exploring Concept alternatives:
• 2/21/24 - LDDA meeting #3 - Concept alternatives
• 4/3/24 - SWG meeting #3 - Concept alternatives (11 attendees)
• 4/8/24 - Public meeting #2 - Online, concept alternatives** (40 attendees)
• 4/10/24 - Public meeting #3 - Open House, concept alternatives (42 attendees)
• 4/23/24 - City Council (Study Session) #4 - concept alternatives
• 9/6/23 - Current - Virtual engagement - Story Map
• 4/8/24 - 5/13/24 - Virtual engagement - Survey #2, concept alternatives (664 responses)
Prior Council Actions or Discussions
September 27, 2002: City council study session #1 - RFP review
July 25, 2023: City Council study session #2 - Project overview, project scope, and visioning
November 28, 2023: City Council study session #3 - Existing conditions review and public engagement process
April 23, 2024: Design concept alternatives
FISCAL IMPACTS:
Should the city council direct staff to fully develop the new alternatives, the cost would be $465,000. This funding could be drawn from Measure 3A fund balance and would thereby reduce the resources in the fund available for other capital project priorities.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
The existing and ongoing Project Downtown process is nearly complete and promises to deliver design and construction of Phase 1 improvements in 2025 and 2026. The process has been extensive with opportunities for questions and input from all parties in every phase so far. The process has also forged strong, albeit not universal, community support for the emerging preferred alternative, which is based on the Village concept. To fully explore dramatically different alternatives could more than double the project planning budget, add more than one year of planning time, and risk the cohesive stakeholder process and support that has preserved so far. For these reasons, staff recommends that council direct staff to proceeding with the existing project process, which would allow for council consideration of the final concept proposal in November 2024.
ALTERNATIVES:
1. Direct staff to proceed with the existing project process.
2. Direct staff to engage the LDDA and begin the contracting process to develop options to 1) reduce lanes of travel on Main St. to one lane, and 2) eliminate all lanes of travel on Main St. for vehicle traffic, thereby allowing Main St. to function exclusively as a pedestrian retail and entertainment destination.