Downtown Area Plan Heads to City Council for Final Hearing and Vote

Downtown Area Plan Heads to City Council for Final Hearing and Vote

Published on November 17, 2025

City & County of Denver and Downtown Denver Partnership to Present Ambitious Plan to Make the Urban Core More Playful, Livable and Resilient

DENVER (Nov. 17, 2025) - Today, the City and County of Denver's Department of Community Planning and Development and the Downtown Denver Partnership will present the final Downtown Area Plan to Denver City Council, which will hold a final public hearing and vote to adopt this 20-year vision for this key area of the city. The Plan is a blueprint for establishing Downtown Denver as a central neighborhood that is the epicenter of economic activity, a cultural and community hub, and a celebrated place for generations to come.

Downtown Area Plan Final Adoption Hearing and Vote
5:30 p.m., Monday, November 17, 2025
Visit City Council website for hearing information
Download final plan draft

"This plan reflects thousands of voices, from neighbors at pop-up events to families at community celebrations, all calling for a downtown that's easier to reach, more affordable to live in, and more joyful to spend time in," said Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. "By opening the door to more opportunities in our city center, we're committing to a downtown that is playful, livable, and resilient."

"Today marks an incredibly important milestone not only for downtown, but for the future of our city. This plan addresses our current needs while charting a bold vision for the next decade, creating a downtown where communities thrive and businesses flourish," said Kourtny Garrett, President and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership. "As we move to implementation, we're energized by the unified commitment for downtown that will bring this vision to life."

"This is the bold, action-driven vision that our downtown core deserves and that will bring people, investment and joy into our city center," said CPD Executive Director Brad Buchanan. "I applaud the outstanding work of our team for bringing the community into this process and delivering a great plan."

"Downtown is everybody's neighborhood, and this plan makes that real. The Downtown Area Plan gives us a clear path to create more homes, safer streets, and a city center that works for every Denverite," said District 10 Councilman Chris Hinds.

"This new Downtown Area Plan envisions an urban core that thrives both economically and as a community hub, thoughtfully connecting Denver's neighborhoods to the heart of our city," said District 9 Councilman Darrell Watson.

As Downtown Denver is a significant economic driver for Denver, the Front Range and the Mountain West, the Plan identifies four core opportunities that address current market headwinds while planning for the next 20 years of growth and development:

• Breaking down barriers to make downtown easier to reach and navigate by enhancing our transit and pedestrian infrastructure and making downtown accessible and welcoming to the surrounding neighborhoods.
• Catalyzing investment, especially public investment, in key areas to spark private development, particularly leveraging the Denver Downtown Development Authority to support the transformation and adaptive reuse of aging office buildings into vibrant mixed-use spaces.
• Creating opportunities for play through a connected network of parks, plazas, and public spaces, from the transformational Skyline Park renovation to the signature 5280 Trail, through programming and activation that bring these spaces to life through events, art, and community gatherings.
• Addressing the housing imperative by aiming to double downtown's residential population while ensuring housing diversity and affordability, preserving existing affordable units and creating new ones, supporting a range of housing types, including family-friendly options, and identifying partners to provide stable, affordable homeownership opportunities.

The Downtown Area Plan is a 20-year roadmap developed through extensive public engagement, with thousands of touchpoints with the community including over 8,400 visits to the website, more than 2,200 survey responses, more than 750 public meeting attendees and 3,300 of people at pop-up events on 16th Street, Skyline Park, Civic Center and at community events like the Christkindl Market, Dia De Los Muertos and Parade of Lights. This collaborative process also included seven community advisory committee meetings, as well as dedicated focus groups and interviews with underrepresented communities, to shape a vision that embraces downtown as a welcoming, inclusive neighborhood filled with parks, housing, economic opportunity, and cultural experiences.

The Downtown Area Plan community process was co-led by the City and County of Denver and the Downtown Denver Partnership in collaboration with lead consultant Sasaki and project partners, Radian, OV Consulting, SB Friedman, Root Policy Research, Affiliated Engineers Inc., ArLand Land Use Economics and Historic Denver.

The Downtown Area Plan will be implemented as a coordinated effort across city departments in collaboration with the Downtown Denver Partnership. For more information, including to download the final plan, visit: denverdowntownareaplan.com.

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