A vacant patch of grass that sits where the Grand Avenue Bridge used to cross the Colorado River could become a place for community members and visitors alike to gather and enjoy downtown, according to design ideas at a recent Glenwood Springs open house.

“This year is all about finalizing design,” said Bryana Starbuck, the public information officer for the city of Glenwood Springs.

Starbuck said the city is working to “activate” the Sixth Street corridor completely.

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North Landing is what the city calls the parcel of land next to Sixth and Pine streets, and both will be large ongoing projects for the city this year. 

“This will be a great place to tie together the area, while also helping to build community, which is something that’s really important to us,” Starbuck said.

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The open house was held at the Glenwood Springs Community Center on Jan. 25, allowing residents to weigh in on decisions like whether there should be tiered seating, a little performance area, vendors either permanent or temporary, and public restrooms.

City staff then showed a map of the area with cost expenses, so people could help decide where these aspects will go depending on expenses, like putting a permanent vendor where utility lines run underground, or where natural hills might affect tiered seating.  

“This area really needs something like this, like the hangout spot,” said Hannah Klausman, the director of community and economic development for the city. “It’s not a restaurant, it’s not a business. It really is like, you can go to all those places and then you can take a moment and just hang out. I personally love spaces like that.”

Showing the community members different possibilities for the space, the city lets them rate the favorability between permanent or temporary vendors, a public bathroom, a public bathroom connected to a permanent vendor, a performance space, tiered seating and more.

Then, they gave attendees red, yellow and green stickers to show levels of preference with red being bad and green being good. Those who participated preferred that no trees be removed.

It gives the city a good idea of what to give to the designers, Jillian Sutherland, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, said.  

“When we were doing the Look Book public process to determine what people really wanted to see from the space, a lot of folks talked about performance space being important,” Sutherland said. “What we don’t want to do is a performance space where, if a band is not playing it just looks like an empty shell, so we’re calling it a multipurpose space.”

The city is aiming to have the construction picture ready this year to get a better idea when they can break ground, Starbuck said. Sixth Street itself will also be seeing construction designs coming soon.

Post Independent reporter Cassandra Ballard can be reached at cballard@postindependent.com or 970-384-9131.