Denver planners are working on a new Cherry Creek Area Plan to set guidelines for future change. But some residents are wondering why a new plan is being worked on when the last one hasn’t been fully executed.
“We’re grateful that an area plan was done in 2000, but the criticism is that all of this great vision is done, but it’s sitting in the plan,” said Cherry Creek East resident Barbara Metzger. “We want to make sure that the conversations are implemented.”
She and others at the first Cherry Creek Area Plan’s public workshop earlier this month said residents’ biggest issues are the same ones they had 10 years ago. They want, among other things, more pedestrian lighting; defined, welcoming gateways into the neighborhood; and better connectivity for bikers, pedestrians and motorists, particularly to hot spots such as Cherry Creek Shopping Center and the Cherry Creek bike path.
“We’re Cherry Creek, and we can’t get to the creek,” Metzger said, citing, for example, trying to maneuver through the intersection at East Alameda Avenue and South Madison Street to get to the bike path.
At the workshop, officials from the city’s Community Planning and Development Department said it’s time for a new plan because several major redevelopment projects have taken place in the area since 2000, and more are expected in the near future.
The plan has served and continues to serve its purpose, said Chris Gleissner, co-project manager for the Cherry Creek Area Plan. The plan guided development along East First Avenue, redevelopment in Cherry Creek North and the transformation of older, single-family homes into new, larger duplexes and row houses in Cherry Creek East and Cherry Creek North, he said.
Gleissner noted that the plan only makes land use, mobility and development recommendations but doesn’t actually make changes.
A draft plan is slated for completion in February with anticipated adoption by the City Council set for the spring. More public workshops will be hosted, Gleissner said.
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