City of Co. Springs to widen sidewalks, add outdoor seating & remove center lane on Tejon St.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - A key part of downtown Colorado Springs will have a makeover as early as next summer, thanks to the city's Tejon Street Revitalization effort, which is set to begin construction in early 2025.

Throughout this year, the City's Department of Public Works, along with the Downtown Partnership, worked with local businesses within the two blocks of West Colorado Avenue to Kiowa Street along Tejon Street, where the revitalization project will happen.

"They really wanted like a nice nine or ten foot space, you know, to really have that outside enjoyment." explained Director of Public Works, Richard Mulledy.

Mulledy says that plans for re-imagining Tejon Street, the downtown's main drag, have existed for several years. Now using a grant that the city acquired through the American Rescue Plan Act during the pandemic, they were able to begin formulating a blueprint for Tejon's revitalization in 2024.

Mulledy says the project will widen the sidewalks to about 10 feet on both sides of Tejon Street, along the two blocks between Kiowa and West Colorado Avenue. With that space, they will be adding more outdoor seating for restaurants, and leave excess room for downtown-goers on sidewalks as well.

Due to the encroachment of the sidewalks into the road, the center lane of Tejon Street will be eliminated. The lane is commonly used for delivery trucks bringing in products and ingredients for restaurants and businesses, however the city mainly cites the safety concerns created by workers crossing back and forth on the busy street.

"I mean, that is not where you want a loading and unloading to happen. Closing that obviously then [means] Where do they load where they unload?" explained Mulledy.

He explains that the city is evaluating areas and windows of time for trucks to load and unload boxes, as a compromise of sorts, as they're aware of the concerns that some businesses have.

"With all the uses in that space that you're trying to do, I mean, to try to give people accessibility to parking, traffic safety, walkways... there's only a limited out of room." said Mulledy.

The last change, which could prove to be the most impactful to traffic on Tejon, is the consideration of using parallel parking spots instead of the diagonal spots that currently exist. Mulledy says that decision is still being sorted out, ahead of construction tentatively beginning in February.

Meredith Klube, a manager with Jack and Quinn's Irish Pub for 25 years, says she is overall excited for the changes, and thinks it will certainly help her establishment, and others.

"Right now we only have about four very small tables on our patio. So if we could extend that, that would be fantastic, especially during the nice Colorado summer." said Klube.

However, she also worries about the impacts of construction on restaurants and other businesses, explaining the similarities to the situation that businesses faced along North Academy Boulevard during a massive pavement and road work project over the last two years.

"Of course, you hear construction nightmares. And so that's definitely been in the back of my mind since hearing about it.  I have expressed concerns and they've come in and met with me personally and talked to me about concerns," said Klube.

One business owner, who manages multiple properties along the second block of Tejon near Kiowa Street, preferred not to be named while talking with KRDO13, however they stated they had many mixed feelings about the changes.

They said that they appreciated the intent of the city to help downtown businesses, but they felt the impacts that will come from the construction diversion, and the center lane being removed for deliveries to all their businesses, will outweigh the positives.

Other's like Jesse Guare who owns Firebird Chicken Sandwiches inside Avenue 19 Food Hall, says that it's great to see the city investing in the area.

"It's kind of nice to see that they're going to pivot to see if they can do something else to help us out down here as business owners." said Guare.

The city says construction, should it start in Februrary, would likely last until mid-summer 2025.