In partnership with the local developers, Colorado Springs Utilities, the Downtown Partnership, and others, the City of Colorado Springs is working to transform Southwest Downtown into a technology-enabled smart district.
As one of the few opportunities for urban revitalization of this scale in the state, Southwest Downtown is now poised to become Colorado’s most sustainable and smart urban neighborhood. Breaking ground on the Country’s only U.S. Olympic Museum in 2017 elevated the Southwest Downtown from an afterthought to an opportunity to develop an active, smart and sustainable district. Private development of mixed-use housing, retail, hospitality and commercial spaces with 1.6 million square feet begins later this year, a multimodal transportation hub will be constructed over the next few years, and the City has already begun plans for drastically improving infrastructure in the area. The new infrastructure will include curb-less street design, high quality materials, signature streetscape, and sustainable stormwater management practices that provides a significant connection and interaction with the U.S. Olympic Museum plaza. Upon completion, this project will have rehabilitated sidewalks, drainage and roadways across 4 key core blocks in Southwest Downtown.
The City seeks to leverage the activity and investment occurring in Southwest Downtown, which includes a projected increase of 275 jobs, annual employment output of $33,768,823, and an increase of $116,217,773 in assessed property value within Southwest Downtown to develop a smart district, in partnership with the local developers, Colorado Springs Utilities, the Downtown Partnership, and others.
Although built on a set of simple principles for smart cities and sustainability, this project leverages passive and active technologies to make them a reality – all with the goal of making Southwest Downtown a safer, more attractive, livable neighborhood and source of pride for the city and state. To create this environment, the City will invest in and deploy interactive kiosks that provide enhanced wayfinding, transportation mobility options, and can provide emergency alerts as needed. The City will also will install LED streetlights that have a longer life than traditional high pressure sodium street lighting systems, require less maintenance and have reduced operating costs and incorporate smart technologies and sensors on the streetlights to enhance safety and the visitor experience. Working closely with the parking enterprise, the City will deploy smart parking meters and EV charging stations throughout the district. A cross-departmental and cross-agency team of the City is currently identifying the scope of the Southwest Downtown smart district and the associated technology and infrastructure needs to support these efforts.