26-02-2025
Cheyenne city officials approve new downtown development plan
CHEYENNE — After around 18 months of work, the Cheyenne City Council has approved a new Downtown Development Plan, a strategy outlining the vision for the capital city's downtown core going forward.
The $108,000 plan was paid for with mill levy funds from the Downtown Development Authority. It builds on an initial DDA Master Plan created in 1991, and was aimed to consolidate 50 different previous downtown plans.
This plan was primarily crafted through research on the downtown community and input collected from public sessions where community members were given the opportunity to provide feedback on the direction they would like to see downtown Cheyenne go.
The 70-page planning document was crafted by the DDA after receiving around 850 online questionnaire responses, hosting three downtown business and property owner work sessions and seven public events that engaged more than 350 attendees.
According to the report, feedback from the business and property owners, the public and the DDA Board highlighted the desire to focus future DDA efforts on completion of previous projects, rather than identifying new actions. They specifically mentioned completion of the Reed Avenue Rail Corridor and the West Edge enhancements, multimodal pathway connections and 15th Street enhancements.
Attendees from the public open houses also expressed a desire to redevelop the large surface parking lots to address high-priority, additional needs for housing, public spaces and restaurants.
Overall, the plan identified four top themes on which to focus over the next five to 10 years. Those are building and street character, economic and cultural development, infrastructure and land use, and transportation and parking.
The DDA breaks down what working under these themes looks like in the document. It also addresses several ways the city and business and property owners can work together to address the top priorities within these themes by suggesting multiple action items.
Before approval on Monday, DDA board members discussed with City Council members what this plan means for downtown Cheyenne.
Brian Bau, DDA board member and owner of The Albany restaurant and bar, said the DDA and its staff will be able to use this plan to become a robust point of connection and a resource for those who want to grow and build downtown. Wendy Volk, another DDA board member, said the plan will be a guiding document.
'It has short-term, medium-term and long-term goals. It's a fluid document,' she said.
Some plans in the past have been overly ambitious or unrealistic. Others have resulted in significant changes downtown, like the LED lights strung over 17th Street, the bronze statues on street corners and the concrete rectangular planters lining the streets downtown. City Council members expressed optimism about this plan going forward if it is approached realistically.
Before approving the plan, council member Tom Segrave moved to amend the document based on suggestions from the city's Planning Commission. This amendment incorporated additional goals of addressing parking, walkability, the 'hole' next to the Hynds Building and including a reference to downtown grant programs available through the DDA.
'As a former DDA board member and chairman, I very much want to support this,' Segrave said. 'I also want to say that I've been very disappointed in the DDA, particularly the last few years. It seems like they've lost their focus at times and their mission. If this document provides that for the DDA, then it's well worth the money spent.'
He added that members of the City Council must hold the DDA accountable for the goals outlined in this plan.
'There are so many things that come in front of us that tend to get lost along the way, and somehow, we need to keep that in focus,' he said.
Council member Pete Laybourn expressed a similar sentiment, saying that the previous 50 plans were difficult to implement, and this one will be no different without any accountability.
'There are economic changes that the city has no control over. There are all sorts of changes that happen in the commercial enterprises. There is real need for understanding of our very ambitious programs here on the west side (of downtown),' Laybourn said. 'So, I want to be realistic.'
Segrave's amendment to the document was passed unanimously, followed by a unanimous vote in support of the development plan from the governing body.
The plan was created by the DDA's Board of Directors in partnership with the DDA and city staff and urban planning consultant Logan Simpson.
