The downtown planning process will include recommendations for all major downtown neighborhoods– Auraria, Central Platte Valley, Ballpark, Arapahoe Square, Upper Downtown and Golden Triangle– while guiding the development of the greater public realm. The plan will serve as a tool to help community leaders, decision-makers, and community members build upon Downtown Denver’s assets while guiding public investment to reflect the community’s vision for a livable, sustainable, and vibrant downtown area.

A Community-Led Process

Launched in 2024, the planning process has worked with the public to better understand the priorities that were of greatest importance to the Downtown Denver community. Multiple rounds of community engagement during the first eight months included large public meetings, pop-up events, focus groups, and one-on-one stakeholder conversations. Additionally, the process has a Community Advisory Committee composed of downtown stakeholders, business owners, and leaders who are helping shape and guide the plan. Central to engagement has been centering equity in the process to ensure input from groups that have historically been left out of previous planning processes.

Following several months of engagement, the project team established seven “building blocks” to serve as guiding principles for the plan: Connection, Play, Investment, Innovation, Equity, Stories, and Resilience. These seven building blocks are critical elements either missing or in need of improvement in downtown. As strategies for the plan emerge, the project team aims to ensure that proposed strategies and locations for implementation achieve as many of these building blocks as possible.

Completing the Downtown Experience

Critical to this plan is transforming Downtown Denver into a complete neighborhood, pivoting the core away from the role as a Central Business District and towards a Central Neighborhood District. The plan focuses on establishing policies and projects that grow the residential population, create new open spaces and community amenities for neighborhood life, and reinvigorate a struggling office and retail market. This planning effort is working in parallel with the expansion of the Downtown Development Authority, giving $500+ million for strategic catalytic investment. 

Specific strategies include leveraging existing and planned projects, creating new open spaces for people to relax and linger, enhancing the experience along key streets, and improving mobility into and through downtown. Many of these strategies overlap in focus areas where numerous problems exist today, and where implementation would have the greatest impact in advancing the seven Building Blocks. 

The final round of public engagement will help to better understand public priorities around emerging strategies. After the final input has been collected, a draft of the plan will be released for public review and comment over the summer, with adoption by Denver City Council slated for Fall 2025.