Comments on: Boulevard of oblivion http://csbj.com/2010/02/19/boulevard-of-oblivion/ Thu, 23 May 2013 17:48:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Rick Wehner http://csbj.com/2010/02/19/boulevard-of-oblivion/comment-page-1/#comment-20187 Rick Wehner Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:32:14 +0000 http://csbj.com/?p=25273#comment-20187 Actually, according to the history of the area, it is time to start developing Marksheffel Road. At the same time the raw pasture land north of town is passed as an ‘urban blight’ area and approved for some more big box stores. We need more sprawl, more streets the city cannot maintain and some streetlights to turn off.

What might make more sense is to improve roads to the point it is attractive for shoppers to reach the existing malls in the north end of town and concentrate on infill for some of the already blighted areas such as the area just southwest of the county courthouse, south Nevada Ave and let project 6035 work on ways to make south Academy attractive to new green business, software and manufacturing firms.

]]> By: atomic elroy http://csbj.com/2010/02/19/boulevard-of-oblivion/comment-page-1/#comment-19436 atomic elroy Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:24:52 +0000 http://csbj.com/?p=25273#comment-19436 “voter-approved bond issue”.. what in tarnation is that?

;-)

AE10.

]]> By: John W. Olson http://csbj.com/2010/02/19/boulevard-of-oblivion/comment-page-1/#comment-19406 John W. Olson Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:11:44 +0000 http://csbj.com/?p=25273#comment-19406 The revitalization that occurs on Academy Boulevard needs to be given much more creative thought than conventional “redevelopment” in this City. It was very disheartening for me to see the abandoned Citadel Crossing strip center replaced with yet another Strip Center and Lowe’s. This was very short-sighted of the developer, and I will not be at all surprised to see the Lowe’s fail twenty years from now, leaving us with the same problem. Les is correct that it can be very difficult to redevelop South Academy. If we simply replace the failed big box stores with new big box retail, it too will fail when it is no longer new or fresh.

When redeveloping Academy, the demographics really need to be given a lot of consideration. Many people who live in the area do not own automobiles, so redevelopment needs to consider other modes of transportation, especially the most basic of them all, feet. Additional residential needs to be a pivotal part of any redevelopment. Without that basic ingredient, the 24-hour sense of place will never be realized. Form-based codes need to be in place codifying the form and framework of the future, not just the use. With form-based codes in place, changes in market can be realized for our buildings. Without them, our big boxes and strip centers do not have a chance to be anything other than suburban retail. The City should realize at this point what happens to suburban shopping centers after the initial and even secondary tenants have left. All it takes is a shift in the economy or a closure of a major chain to make a shopping center or even an entire corridor become a ghost town.

I hope we can learn from the “solutions” that have created the mess that Academy has become. Let’s also keep an eye on Powers, it is destined to have the same problems as Academy twenty years from today.

“We can not solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

John W. Olson
Colorado Congress for the New Urbanism

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