The Master Plan will be a Community Based Implementation focused Transportation plan that will examine the needs, facilities for bicycles, pedestrians, and transit. The plan will establish goals and objectives for each mode of transportation. It will discuss Safe Routes to School, Carpooling/park and rides, and other modes of transportation. The Scope of the plan is the City of Durango Comprehensive Planning Area. The goal of the plan is to establish a connected functional network of bicycle lanes/routes throughout the city, identify on and off street trail and transit connections, and to develop a new set of uses friendly maps. The end result will be a prioritized list of projects, policy recommendations for bike lanes, bike parking, transit enhancements, ride-sharing, suggested locations for park and rides, and much more.
The City is not hiring a consultant to write this plan. We need you the residents of Durango and LaPlata County to participate in this process, to give us your suggestions, input and ideas for how to make Durango a fantastic place to get around by any mode of transportation. You are the experts, you know the issues in your neighborhoods, and together we can create a successful plan. To get involved or for more information on the Master Plan please contact Amber Blake at 375-4949 or email her at blakeak@ci.durango.co.us
The public process for the Multi Modal Master Plan began with a kick-off meeting, follwoed by 7 neighborhood meetings, and most recently a public meeting on June 22, 2011 at the DSNGRR Museum. At these meetings the bicycle, pedestrian, and transit networks were discussed . We are looking for input on ways to improve the multi-modal transportation system to create a more complete, connected, safer transportation network for everyone. If you cannot make the meeting scheduled for your neighborhood, feel free to attend any of the sessions.
The next meeting will be held in October 2011.
The meeting schedule follows:
Why do this plan:
Durango was awarded the Silver Level Bicycle Friendly Community Award by the League of American Bicyclists, one of the many things we need to do to receive the Gold award is to write and implement a bicycle master plan, we are taking this one step further by including other modes of transportation, and focusing on implementation versus policy. Another reason we are embarking on this is to ensure we can improve the quality of life for all of the residents and visitors of Durango, Places that are friendly to all mode users provide a much higher quality of life than those that are focused primarily on the automobile.
When will it be completed? Our goal is to have the completed plan in front of City Council for approval by the JANUARY of 2012.
Time line:
♦ Background research, audit existing conditions
♦ Summer 2009 Data collection
♦ Kick Off meeting Summer 2009
♦ Data Collection, phase 1, Fall 2009 - Spring 2010
♦ Neighborhood (6), Winter 2009
♦ Data Collection - phase 2, Spring 2010 - Fall 2010
♦ Data Analysis, Winter 2010- Spring 2011
♦ Public Meeting, June 22, 2011
♦ Data Analysis and Plan Development, Summer 2011 - Winter 2011
♦ Public meeting, Fall 2011
♦ Draft Plan to City Council and Public for review and comment, December 20, 2011
Public Process:
Neighborhood Meetings (7) Throughout October 2010> Three Springs - Mercy > South Durango > Downtown > 160 West > Crestview, North Durango > Hillcrest, Sky Ridge > Animas City, Riverview
Public Meetings > June 22, 2011> October 2011>December 2011 - Draft Plan before Council> Februrary 2012 - Final Plan Presentation
When are the public meetings?
The public meetings will start in October and will continue through plan approval. We will have one public meeting every other month, and will also be conducting Neighborhood meetings to ensure we obtain the level of detailed information we are looking for.
If you are interested in submitting input but cannot make a meeting please contact Amber Blake to schedule a meeting or give your comments over E-mail.
