Brighton council reviews three concepts to expand downtown public realm, seeks business input

City staff and consultants presented three conceptual redesign options for Downtown Brighton on Feb. 11, asking council for early feedback on how to expand sidewalks, improve pedestrian amenities and reduce truck impacts.

The public-realm study, led by Emma Lane, historic preservationist and senior planner for the city, and consultants Ryan Soterakis (urban designer, Dig Studio) and Jennifer Carpenter (senior transportation planner, Michael Baker International), frames downtown’s historic architecture as an asset but says narrow sidewalks, limited seating and heavy truck and train traffic undermine pedestrian activity.

The study team said the downtown inventory shows “almost 700 public parking spaces” but only 22 accessible spaces, and identified several irregular intersections and pinch points — including Main and Bridge streets, Main and Cabbage, and the train crossing on Bridge — that complicate circulation and pedestrian safety. “It’s going to be hard to make a nicer place for people to be and linger with all the trucks that are currently going through,” said Ryan Soterakis.

Three high-level alternatives were shown: - Option 1: Keep two-way traffic on Main Street but remove on-street parking in the core to create a curbless, shared street with about 20 feet of pedestrian space on each side (roughly 40 feet of public realm when the street is open). The team said that change would likely remove about 16 on-street parking stalls in the north Main segment but could be staged with temporary interventions before full reconstruction. - Option 2: Make Main Street one-way (with different directions north and south of Bridge) to free right-of-way for roughly 15–20 feet of sidewalk space and a two-way protected cycle track on one side while retaining parking on one side of the street. - Option 3: Create a one-way couplet (Main southbound, Cabbage northbound) with realignment of the Cabbage–Bridge intersection and a signal; this yields a similar pedestrian-width gain but would most likely require railroad coordination and is more complex to implement.

The consultants told council that many existing midblocks have 8–10-foot sidewalks and the concepts would roughly double pedestrian space in the core blocks. They also noted tradeoffs: Option 1 preserves two-way traffic and is simpler but removes some on-street parking; Options 2 and 3 retain some parking but change traffic patterns and would need more study and coordination with the railroad and fire access.

Council members raised accessibility and business-access concerns. Council Member Pulaski, a longtime downtown business owner, pressed for clearly located handicap parking and short-term loading spaces and said those needs can be accommodated in the plan. “It’s very important to when you own a business that you want to make sure you get customers,” Pulaski said. Council Member Putnam and others supported testing temporary, low-cost interventions first — planters, platforms and event closures — before spending on full curb and gutter reconstruction.

Several members urged stronger measures to reduce truck through-traffic and improve connections from larger public parking areas to Main Street. The study team said the design choices and possible enforcement or routing changes could discourage through trucks, but routing changes and railroad coordination would be required for some options.

Staff said the Brighton Urban Renewal Authority has been engaged and that the next step is to hold a downtown open house and targeted meetings with downtown business and property owners to collect input before staff brings a preferred alternative back to council.

Council members also asked staff to analyze phased, lower-cost pilot projects, consistent with other Colorado downtowns’ incremental approaches, so the city can test treatments without permanent curb reconstruction.

If advanced, the study’s conceptual options would require further engineering, fire access verification, negotiation with the railroad on alignment and signals, and identification of funding sources.