City Council Hears Downtown Beautification Proposal

COLTON >> The city council had a public hearing July 19 to hear the next steps in the proposed beautification and design project for downtown Colton. Diane Bathgate, a principal planner and associate in the RRM Design Group, presented the design manual to the council, which would cover 258 acres of downtown Colton, including boundaries reaching to C Street, the 10 freeway to the south, running down Colton Avenue and along Valley Boulevard and to parts of Mt. Vernon on the east. In 2014, the team involved received a California Sustainable Communities Planning Grant of $228,181 for the City of Colton Downtown Sustainable Development Code by the California Strategic Growth Council. “I think staff did a great job in obtaining that grant,” Bathgate said at the public hearing. “They were able to get it fully funded and not have a requirement of the city to have a matching amount. So I think that is very impressive to have it fully funded.” Since January 2015, the team involved had been working through phases of the project, including understanding downtown Colton, creating a vision for the future and writing and designing the Development Code and Design Manual that was presented to the city council. The goals of the project are to encourage a mix of uses, pedestrian linkages and public facilities that will encourage walking, bicycle mobility and use of transit. The design criteria is to help guide development and redevelop to facilitate a more aesthetically-pleasing downtown identity that respects Colton’s historic heritage. Bathgate said some of the important aspects of the project are to maintain Colton’s small-town family feel, reflect the city’s historical architectural character, provide relaxing gathering spaces with more trees and public art, as well as support local and small businesses. An example included in the design manual include enhancing Valley Boulevard to be more inviting to residents and guests, along with proposing to make La Cadena Drive more pedestrian-oriented with diagonal parking and pedestrian amenities like benches. Also included in the design manual was a design for flowered trees throughout the streets of downtown Colton, additional bus routes and potential transit center, additional bicycle facilities, improved pedestrian corridors and paseos. During the public hearing meeting, Jose Olivar, former Colton Utilities Commissioner, who is also running for Director of the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District Division II, commended the council for taking the first steps and said he has confidence in the council. “We can sit around and just say ‘Look, we have all these problems,’ but let’s find the solutions, let’s get this thing going and as we go along, we’ll fix it,” Olivar said to the council. Although the construction funding, grants and actual development is further down the road, Mayor Richard DeLaRosa said to Bathgate that they have done an excellent job and thanked them for including all the stakeholders in the city, as well as businesses and councilmembers. DeLaRosa said he would like to have a physical meeting on La Cadena Street in front of the post office with the city manager and other councilmembers to look at the proposed plan and see if that is where the project should start.