Taking Exception: Why Academy Blvd. plan works
By Dave Munger and Stephannie Finley As major stakeholders in the Academy Boulevard Corridor Great Streets project, we disagree with the Business Journal’s Feb. 4 opinion article Academy Boulevard Plans Need to be Reworked; particularly with its premise that this corridor should not be made a focus of community re-investment over the next decades. The [...]
It all sounds so good, so promising, so bright. But there are two big problems with the south Academy Boulevard redevelopment plans that were released last week: They’re unrealistic and misguided. While there’s little argument that the 6-mile retail district along Academy Boulevard between Drennan and Maizeland roads is not what it used to be [...]
Continue reading …Academy Boulevard got a welcome boost in the 1980s when the Mission Trace Shopping Center opened. For the first 15 years or so, the 289,000-square-foot retail center, featuring the area’s first bank, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dos Hombres Restaurant and busy King Soopers, attracted thousands of shoppers daily. It soon became the place to shop in [...]
Continue reading …Academy Boulevard awaits redevelopment effort About one year ago, city planners presented the “Academy Boulevard Corridor Revitalization Plan Update” to city council. First conceived during 2007, the report focuses on opportunities characterizing abandoned shopping centers and weed-strewn vacant lots as “redevelopment opportunities.” The plan defined the corridor as that portion of Academy and surrounding neighborhoods [...]
Continue reading …As roads go, Academy Boulevard is a newcomer. As recently as the early 1960s, there was no Academy Boulevard — just a dirt road running through the unpopulated prairie east of the city limits. Growth changed all that, and brought with it the unplanned, unanticipated and eminently unworkable suburban model that would characterize many Sunbelt [...]
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