DENVER — In 2007, the first iPhone went on sale in the US, and the Rockies made their only World Series appearance. It was also the last time the City of Denver updated its 20-year Downtown Area Plan.
The city released a draft of a new plan Monday, which outlines big picture goals “to help community leaders, decision-makers and Denverites build upon downtown’s assets and guide strategic investment and priority projects within Downtown Denver over the next 20 years, reflecting the community’s vision of a robust, healthy and complete downtown.” A formal submission of the plan to the Denver City Council is expected by the end of the year.
It comes after nearly a year of public outreach. The community can still weigh in on the plan through Aug. 29.
- Read the full draft of the updated Downtown Area Plan below:
“We had thousands of people answering surveys, coming to public forums, engaging in our online resources,” said Kourtny Garrett, president and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership. “So truly, this is a plan that has been built by the community.”
“We had a very intentional outreach to folks that work in the service industry, for example, folks that would be working in the kitchens and the bars and restaurants here in downtown,” said David Gaspers, principal city planner with Denver Community Planning & Development (CPD). “Also, folks that have been potentially displaced from downtown in past generations, and wanting to make sure that they feel invited to come back and be a part of this downtown.”
“It's a long-term vision, 20-year plan horizon, but it has near-term focus on action items that we can be working on right away,” Gaspers added.
The plan prioritizes several long-term goals, including:
- Doubling downtown’s population (currently about 35,000) over the next 20 years by adding thousands of new housing units
- Redeveloping vacant office space and underused spaces like surface parking lots
- Adding more art, playgrounds and event spaces
- Overhauling parks like Skyline Park and Civic Center Park
- Making streets more pedestrian and cyclist-friendly by adding more green space and bike lane infrastructure
“Even though some of these projects might take 20 years to implement, we should be looking that far out because it needs to be the heart of our city,” Gaspers told Denver7 Monday.
Gaspers and Garrett point to the 2007 plan, which correctly bet on the transformation of Union Station. That redevelopment was so successful, the funding mechanism for it (called a tax increment finance, approved in 2008) is being extended and has now led to $100 million in downtown improvement projects, through the Downtown Development Authority, announced last week.
Earlier this year, the city rolled out a new downtown safety plan, a revamped 16th Street with a rebrand that dropped the "mall" from the name, and new outdoor drinking zones.
“We've seen new businesses open, 26 businesses so far this year downtown,” Garrett said. “And we expect about another 20 in just the next few months... All of these things coming back, we believe, will change public perception.”
The Downtown Denver Partnership’s June 2025 update reports “steady” growth, with foot traffic at 83% of June 2019 levels.
Sami Tacher, who works at a Trompeau Bakery & Cafe downtown, told Denver7 the city “has become a lot more family friendly” since last year, citing a cleaned-up 16th Street. Looking ahead, Tacher wants to see more social community spaces.
“Post-COVID, I think people need to get out in the world,” said Tacher. “They need to be seeing each other. They want to be interacting with the public. So the more that there can be spaces where people can go and interact with each other, the better.”
