Atascadero reveals its brand-new downtown. ‘This is what we've been waiting for'
After a year of construction on the city's main drag, downtown Atascadero has a whole new look.
Just in time for summer, residents can now enjoy a fully renovated El Camino Real with added car and bike parking, lush greenery and trees, hanging street lights, a center road divider, pedestrian cross walks and other safe and sustainable features.
The renovations span the main drag of El Camino Real from Rosario Avenue to Highway 41.
'This isn't a thoroughfare anymore,' city manager Jim Lewis told reporters. 'This is the center of downtown.'
The city celebrated the completion of its downtown safety, parking and beautification efforts on Friday with a city-wide block party.
The event kicked off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5 p.m. followed by an evening of live music, disco ball scavenger hunts and dance performances in the streets. Local businesses kept their doors open later than usual to accommodate customers into the night.
'Atascadero really is the genuine, authentic community in our county,' Lewis said. 'Atascadero is the living room for our county. We're not pretentious, we're not overrun by visitors, and we have free parking. And so this is just the icing on the cake of why we want local people to hang out here in Atascadero. And I think this is what we've been waiting for.'
Atascadero is in middle of massive downtown renovation. But is construction slowing business?
With construction on the El Camino Real Downtown Safety and Parking Enhancement Project commencing last June, the $12 million public works project clocked in on time and on budget.
Much of the project's funding came from state and federal grants, as well as contributions from the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments.
The project added nearly 130 new free parking spots to downtown and safe crosswalks at the city's most risky intersections on El Camino Real.
The bulk of the work was completed by Friday, with only some landscaping, sidewalk paving and streetlamp installation still to be done in downtown north of Traffic Way in the coming weeks. Two grand entry arches resembling the original city sign, which was blue with neon white letters, will be installed on either end of the new downtown center in the fall.
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