City to host open house for HIP Streets project
Fourth Street improvements could cost $16 million
The public is invited to an open house on Tuesday to see updated plans for the Heart Improvement Program (HIP) streets project that will upgrade five blocks in the heart of downtown Loveland.
From 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Desk Chair (204 E. Fourth St.), representatives from the Loveland Downtown Development Authority and city Public Works will be on hand to answer questions and take feedback on the proposal to “modernize” Fourth Street from Washington Avenue on the east to Garfield Avenue on the west.
“I have a vision that I believe Fourth Street should be one of the best main streets in Colorado,” said Sean Hawkins, executive director of the DDA. “… We really at the end of this want Fourth Street to be the destination that we think it deserves.”
Tuesday will be the second public open house on the project. According to Hawkins, between 70 and 80 people attended the first one in August, offering feedback that ranged from “do nothing” to “close down Fourth Street to cars.”
The design and planning team has incorporated that feedback into an updated set of plans for the second open house that will have more detail, Hawkins said. Specifically, the team has found additional parking in the vicinity, one of the most common concerns expressed in August.
The HIP streets project has its origins in a 2009 planning document for downtown Loveland, but a sluggish economy put the plans on hold for several years.
It was resurrected and updated in 2017, but lacked urgency until Loveland Public Works decided last year to move forward with a major waterline project beneath Fourth Street. Since both require tearing up pavement and sidewalks, the projects will be done simultaneously to save time, money and trouble, said city engineer Nicole Hahn.
“We’re going to put it all back in a beautiful way,” Hahn said.
Current plans for the project call for creating an “engaging and unique streetscape” between Washington and Garfield avenues with paving and sidewalk enhancements, new lighting and light features, streetscape furnishings, new planters and trees and public art.
Hawkins said this will not only create a more vibrant area that will attract visitors, it will also allow the DDA to bring more events to Fourth Street, a recurring request from area business owners.
“It is a neglected street and it needs to be overhauled to a way we want to use it into the future,” he said. “… We have numerous ADA compliance issues. We have poor lighting … the trees are in bad shape. It’s just been neglected.”
Costs to complete both the infrastructure repairs and the improvements are estimated between $15 million and $16 million. Public Works and Loveland Water and Power will contribute around $5.5 million, leaving a budget gap of around $9 million
Hawkins and the DDA are hopeful that the city will agree to issue debt to cover that gap. In September, the organization voted unanimously to pay the
debt service on the city’s behalf, an estimated $465K per year. The DDA also offered to pay 75% of the estimated $366,666 in annual maintenance costs for HIP Streets.
“We want to operate in this world in good faith,” Hawkins said of the DDA’S offer. “One of the main reasons the DDA was funded was for projects like this.”
City Council will hear an update on the project at a study session in January and will get a chance to debate its financing as a regular agenda item in February. If approved, both Hawkins and Hahn said construction could start in the third quarter of 2024.
For information about the HIP streets project, visit letstalkloveland. org/hipstreets. For further details about the open house, visit downtownloveland.org/events.