Alamosa recieves DOLA grant

ALAMOSA — The City of Alamosa has been awarded a $100,000 DOLA Energy and Mineral Impact Grant to assist with the Downtown Master Design and Preliminary Engineering Plan.

The scope of work will include public outreach to ensure streetscape design and priorities are reflective of the needs and vision of the community and downtown businesses. The plan will include a comprehensive streetscape design that includes not only the ROW in front of the businesses and along the state highway, but also alleyways and parking lots.

Additionally, the city will request that the consultant design a two-block streetscape that connects the downtown to the city’s main park that hosts a majority of the special events and draws thousands to the community each year. It is disheartening to have such large crowds just two blocks from the downtown and not see the impact that could occur if the connection was improved.

Additionally, the project will evaluate how to best attract Adams State University students to the downtown. In regards to the alleyways, the city anticipates undergrounding the utilities and dramatically improving the built environment in order to both increase usage from pedestrians, and businesses and to create pathways to the revitalization of our community’s downtown district.

The recently completed comprehensive plan identified a shortfall of parking spaces if fully occupied. The scope of work includes the redesign of existing parking to better maximize usage and identification of future parking to meet the identified demand. The comprehensive plan identified a need for the enlargement of Alamosa’s existing downtown sidewalks by at least four feet to increase the area available for pedestrians, art, outdoor dining, and community events. This will require preliminary engineering and coordination with CDOT for design.

The city also anticipates that the streetscape design would include the traditional streetscape items such as benches, streetlights, planters, trash cans, and wayfinding.

A project of this scope and reach will require phases both because of costs and just the simple complexity of the vision. For that reason, the city wants to ensure that a complete and well-vetted plan is created that details the phases (based on engineering realities and community priorities) and realistic cost estimates for each phase. This phase of the project is anticipated to begin within three to six months.