Littleton’s Main Street could become more “pedestrian-oriented” in the future, with raised sections for walking and options to entirely close the street to cars for events. This idea caught the attention of several city council members, as part of a plan meant to make downtown more alluring.
That possible future is one of three possible options presented as part of Project Downtown, a years-long process to improve the downtown area. Currently, the project team is assessing several alternative design concepts that feature more gathering spaces on Main Street and bike lanes downtown.
The three plans differ in the location of these components, with each one proposing changes along Main Street, West Alamo Avenue, South Nevada Street, South Prince Street and South Curtice Street to different extents.
The option that city council members most liked is called “The Village.” In it, Main Street would still allow cars, but intersections — or even a couple blocks of the street — would be raised. At times, this portion of the street would be able to close to cars for events.
“When people are driving through downtown, (the raised area) kind of slows them down on purpose,” said Josh Mehlem, an engineering consultant working with the city on the project. “That also creates a space where we could have a farmers’ market or events on Main Street and temporarily close that on the weekends or for other events.”
Another plan adds a bike lane to Main Street. One plan narrows Main Street and adds turns along it to slow traffic and create more gathering spaces on the sides.
The plans also propose adding gateway structures or artwork to mark downtown. One plan focuses on enhancing the Little’s Creek Trail and its connection to town.
Project staff said elements of all three designs could be incorporated into a final plan, if that’s what best meets the community’s needs.
The completed plan will guide the city’s investment decisions to promote bike connections, parking, pedestrian safety, wayfinding, green infrastructure and streetscape enhancements, according to the project’s website.
Parking and bike lanes
In their conversations about the project’s various options at a recent meeting, At-Large Councilmember Pam Grove said the new plan should highlight historic buildings.
District 2 Councilmember Robert Reichardt said staff should pay close attention to parking tradeoffs as they consider where to add other elements, like gathering spaces and bike lanes.
“All of these (options) essentially trade parking on Main Street for other amenities,” he said. “I think we really need to keep an eye on parking for mobility-impaired people, in particular, given the age of our population.”
At-Large Councilmember Gretchen Rydin agreed that mobility should be a consideration when considering how much parking to give up.
“I think it makes a lot of sense to shift away a little bit from some of the excessive parking, but making sure we’re not getting rid of it completely,” she said.
Reichardt added that downtown Littleton is a destination for people from around the metro area who drive there.
Mayor Kyle Schlachter said he is not concerned about losing parking spots on Main Street.
“I think having some (Americans with Disabilities Act) spots in places right there makes sense, but we have so much parking around there that I’m not concerned about losing a few spots that are on Main Street,” he said. “The spots that are on Main Street are not the majority of the parking spots in downtown anyways.”
District 1 Councilmember Pat Driscoll suggested using alleyways for parking.
Project Manager Adrienne Burton said that after choosing a preferred option, project team members will conduct a parking management strategy to examine options. This would include assessing the possibilities of leveraging parking at large existing lots like Arapahoe Community College and the city building, Mehlem said.
The council members also discussed where to put bike lanes. Several said they would prefer to see Main Street more focused on the pedestrian experience, with bike lanes on surrounding streets.
“I think bike infrastructure along Main, actually for me, is less of a priority than getting folks to Main,” Barr said. “Once we’re on Main, we’ll want to have extremely slow movement through that area, and I don’t think necessarily bike lanes in that space would necessarily fit.”
Project Downtown and Denver Water
The council members also learned that the project will no longer overlap with a water line project on Main Street, as it was originally expected to.
In July, Burton said the team intended to align the construction schedule with the Denver Water water line replacement project to minimize impact to businesses and property owners. Since then, however, Denver Water’s plans have changed in scope and its project is not expected to be majorly disruptive to businesses.
City Manager Jim Becklenberg said the city expects Denver Water to complete its project before Project Downtown construction, instead of the projects overlapping, because the city now believes this will be the least disruptive to businesses. Construction for Project Downtown is expected to begin in 2026 or 2027, he said.
This came as news to some city council members, who expressed concern that the new timing would make the project more expensive for the city.
In an interview with the Littleton Independent, Becklenberg said he does not believe the new order of projects will be more expensive for the city. He said the hope to overlap the projects had more to do with reducing impact to businesses than reducing cost. Since the water line project is much smaller now, the impact is not as much of a concern.
Becklenberg said the city has $10 million penciled in to the 3A capital sales tax fund for the first phase of the project so far. Over the course of the whole project, he said it will likely cost “multiples of” $10 million as it moves forward into future phases.
A survey seeking feedback on the three alternative options is available on the city’s Project Downtown webpage and will be open until May 13.
Maybe Mayor Kyle Schlachter should be concerned about parking on Main Street. There are businesses and restaurants we would like to visit in downtown Littleton but we don’t because of lack of parking on Main Street and on adjacent intersecting streets. Rich VandeKoppel.