A major transformation along Eastman Park Drive in the Town of Windsor, Colorado, was well underway when town officials contracted with Olsson Studio to lead a unique project.

As the Eastman Park Drive corridor was changing, the town challenged Olsson Studio to make sure future development aligned with projects already underway and to identify complimentary opportunities for future growth along the 1.5-mile stretch of the roadway.

Though this project didn’t offer the blank slate Olsson Studio often deals with, our team of landscape architects and planners are skilled at finding the right pieces to a complex puzzle already in progress.

Eastman Park Drive had long served as an access road for a large industrial area – the Great Western Industrial Park – on the eastern side of the Town of Windsor. In recent years, a regional-level multifield sports facility and mixed-use development (Future Legends Sports Park) was being designed along the corridor. That’s when the town turned to Olsson Studio to develop a master plan to guide the corridor’s future.

Going into the project, our team wanted to make sure what was proposed would follow the form and function of the corridor. Our plan recommended adding flexibility to the corridor by encouraging more mixed-use development to complement and serve the residential areas sprouting up in the area.

Olsson Studio created design guidelines for public right-of-way and for private development. This effort included designing a full streetscape concept along Eastman Park Drive that extended to a few side roads leading to the corridor. The streetscape plan included sidewalk connections, a multi-use trail, landscaped medians, consistent street trees, branded monumentation, and additional lighting to make the area more pedestrian friendly.

An important element that encouraged more pedestrian use was adding two different pathways along the corridor – one for pedestrians and one for bicyclists. This desired feature was identified during a public engagement effort when our team discovered residents wanted a way to commute by bike along Eastman Park Drive, while being safely separated from vehicle traffic. By creating two different paths, we were able to create a safer space for all users and give the city more space for landscaping within the parkways.

Public engagement included a virtual workshop for 60 stakeholders, which was conducted during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic during summer 2020. We held the workshop in the evening and included virtual breakout rooms. Later that fall, we held in-person public meetings and two public open houses, one of which was virtual.

We worked with the developers of Windsor Village and Future Legends Sports Park and the Town of Windsor to make sure there was connectivity between public and private development. This effort ensured the transportation plan in the developments connected seamlessly with Eastman Park Drive.

The Town of Windsor adopted the plan in December 2021.