by Laura Lieff

With the City of Denver growing on a seemingly daily basis, questions have come up concerning the best transportation corridor from Lowry and Aurora to downtown Denver. While most of the city’s population uses I-25 to make their way north and south, there is no official transportation corridor that runs east and west and the City of Denver is looking for a candidate in Leetsdale Drive.

Interviews with Senior City Planner and Co-Project Manager for the Living Streets Initiative Gideon Berger and others involved with Leetsdale, indicate that at least from a city planner’s perspective, the corridor has a positive future.

 The Living Streets Initiative is a project of the City and County of Denver that purports to combine context sensitive development with complete streets that promote active living, increased mobility, and stimulate economic development in Denver’s most traveled urban corridors.

Berger explained that a consulting team is currently looking at the segment of Leetsdale that runs from Colorado Boulevard to Quebec Street to figure out how the corridor could accommodate resident, commercial and mixed use development while maximizing its use as a transportation route for multi-modal access. Multi-modal access includes private automobiles, transit, pedestrians and bikers.

Leetsdale Drive was built in the early 1890s to provide a road from Colorado Boulevard to a real estate development of Denver City Councilman John E. Leet called “Leetsdale” located at the southeast corner of what is today Leetsdale Drive and Quebec Street. The development failed as a result of the silver crash of 1893, but the name of the road remained.

Corridors Of Change

Because the City of Denver won the Smart Growth Implementation award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the cost of the consulting team working on Leetsdale and 12 other transportation corridors in Denver is being underwritten by the EPA. The preliminary findings of the consulting team will be shared with stakeholders in the area this month.

“By looking at the road configuration and the road transportation network, we can figure out how we actually utilize the right of way and how we can improve the corridor,” said Berger. “This EPA study is intended to give us ideas about projects in the future and we are very excited for that.”

While the downtown Cherry Creek corridor was chosen as the pilot corridor because of its diversity, additional enhanced transportation areas other than Leetsdale include Colfax, Colorado Boulevard and Federal Boulevard.

More Than Travel

“These corridors have lots of different uses and different types of traffic but they already have a good bus service,” explained Berger. “Between the EPA and the Living Streets Initiative, we are trying to create a policy to help implement the goals of the strategic transportation plan which is to move both people and cars more efficiently.”

Berger believes that Leetsdale, along with the 12 other transportation areas, can be more than just a travel corridor.

“Living Streets sees these 12 transportation corridors as places to connect travel uses to the street,” noted Berger. “These corridors are untapped resources for the city as they have lots of activity and people, but they are not necessarily functioning at an efficient level and the City of Denver hopes to change that.”

FNBC Developing On Leetsdale

While everything is currently in the “study phase” and Living Streets is trying to get ideas on how to enhance all the transit corridors, other companies are getting involved to make Leetsdale the best street it can be.

This month, FNBC Colorado Commercial Real Estate Group Broker Mark Hernandez is planning on breaking ground on a new building on Leetsdale. Hernandez says that his project will help “raise the bar for the caliber of businesses on Leetsdale” and that his building exemplifies the “architectural improvement that is necessary for the enhancement of Leetsdale.”

The new building will bring a mixed use of retail and professional office space, which Hernandez hopes will “set precedents for the other property owners to look at improving their properties.”

Next Great Spot

While Hernandez thinks that Leetsdale has lots of room for improvement, he thinks that it has the potential to be more than just a transportation corridor. He points out that with the street’s proximity to Hilltop it will provide that neighborhood, among other surrounding neighborhoods, with retail services they would normally have to go to Cherry Creek to find.

“In order to be successful, Leetsdale needs a genuine effort by the property owners to improve the aesthetics and condition of their buildings,” Hernandez pointed out. “The street has so much to offer with its wide array of culture, restaurants and shopping that it could be the next great spot in Denver!”

Although Hernandez has high hopes for Leetsdale he does recognize the challenges the corridor presents including the fact that it’s a state highway as opposed to a city street meaning there are more people with which to coordinate.

Businesses Take Notice

“It’s a challenge to get things done and to coordinate between the City of Denver, the City of Glendale and CDOT,” he noted. “There are a lot of entities involved and everyone needs to get on the same page.”

In addition to the new kids on the block like Hernandez, businesses that already reside on Leetsdale including the Egg and I, located at Holly and Leetsdale, and Nonna’s located at Monaco and Leetsdale. In February 2008, the renowned breakfast restaurant added an outdoor patio that seats 34 people when it’s enclosed during the winter and an additional 12 people in the summer when it’s open. In November 2008, Egg and I added a meeting room that seats approximately 50 people.

“We knew that when we purchased the space on Leetsdale that we wanted to add on,” said Assistant Manager Deborah Kaiser. “This street is always busy so it’s definitely been a great location for us.”

Place To Hang Out

Mike Mayer, general manager of another Leetsdale staple Nonna’s Bistro, agrees that having the restaurant on such a busy street is helpful, especially because it’s located right at the corner of Leetsdale and Monaco. However, because people currently use Leetsdale as more of a travel corridor he says that most of the customers at Nonna’s come in as a result of word of mouth and advertising.

“Leetsdale is a major street with lots of traffic but it would be nice if the area could become more of a place to hang out,” Mayer noted. “We’d like to see some more shops around us so all the people traveling on Leetsdale would stop and spend some time in the area.”

With all of the positive feedback concerning Leetsdale, Berger has high hopes for the corridor’s future.

Sense Of Place

“Living Streets encompasses the performance of all transportation elements and the viability of built-in environment and land uses,” he said. “Leetsdale, along with the other corridors, already has great transportation and lots of ridership and we want to make it even better.”

Although Berger explains that Leetsdale is not yet a destination, he says that Living Streets would like to see it become one. They want to get more benefit out of the fact that it’s such a high-volume transportation corridor and take advantage of all the potential customers driving the street.

“We are aiming to create a stronger sense of place with more comfortable sidewalks, better street front stores and better parking,” said Berger. “We are anxious to hear what the EPA consulting team has to say and to share them with stakeholders across the corridor. Needless to say January will be an exciting time.”

For more information on the Living Streets Initiative visit www.denvergov/lsi.