Colorado Springs adopts Elevate Downtown plan with housing, public-realm and TIF priorities
The plan makes Elevate Downtown the Downtown Development Authority’s official development plan, sets 10-year housing and public-realm goals, and preserves existing tax-increment financing authority through 2037 while leaving any extension to future action.
Colorado Springs City Council approved the Elevate Downtown Master Plan on May 26, making it the Downtown Development Authority’s official Plan of Development and setting a 10-year framework for housing, public spaces, mobility, economic development and Clean and Safe services.
The plan updates the city’s 2016 Experience Downtown Plan. It calls for at least 200 new for-sale homes over the next decade, with 10% designated as attainable or workforce housing. It also identifies a full-service grocery store, pharmacy, child care and other daily services as priorities for a Downtown area the plan says had more than 4,900 residents and 3,075 residential units in 2025. The City Council approval record lists the plan as passed after recommendations from the Downtown Review Board and Planning Commission. The adopted plan contains the goals and proposed actions.
Public-realm priorities include completing the Legacy Loop, advancing the COS Creek Plan, planting 1,000 trees in the Downtown core and providing a public restroom. The plan also recommends expanded transit, protected bicycle facilities, improved sidewalks and alleys, better parking and wayfinding, a future Downtown mobility hub and redevelopment of the Martin Drake Power Plant site. It does not establish that those projects are funded or completed.
The plan’s five goals are to make Downtown the Pikes Peak region’s economic and civic heart; create a vibrant, welcoming neighborhood; connect urban life to parks, waterways and trails; strengthen culture, creativity and sports; and shape urban design around people. The DDA board and staff, working with the city’s Urban Planning Division, are to review the goals and action steps annually. Potential implementation partners include the city, El Paso County, Downtown Partnership organizations, Colorado Springs Utilities, the Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority, private developers and other public agencies.
The plan recommends a permanent, well-resourced Clean and Safe program, coordinated homelessness services and continued attention to enforcement, outreach, cleanliness and behavioral health. It does not establish post-pilot funding. The 19-month Clean and Safe pilot is scheduled to expire Dec. 31; its city contract was $700,000, part of an approximately $1.8 million program cost cited by Downtown Partnership officials.
The DDA’s existing property-tax increment financing authorization continues under the plan. The document says the DDA boundary and original Imagine Downtown base year remain unchanged and that TIF remains authorized through the existing 30-year period, which expires in 2037. It describes property-tax TIF as the DDA’s main revenue source for reimbursement agreements, programs and capital projects. Adoption of the new plan is deemed a continuation of the existing tax-sharing arrangement, not an amendment to the authorization.
The plan recommends developing a strategy for a possible 20-year TIF extension after 2037, but records reviewed for this update did not identify an extension ordinance, application, intergovernmental agreement or other formal action showing that city or DDA officials are pursuing one.
Under Colorado’s Senate Bill 23-175, an additional 20-year extension would require municipal action by ordinance. Unless the city and all affected taxing entities agree to a different share, 50% of eligible property-tax increment during the extension would go to the municipality’s special fund and 50% to other taxing entities. The law also requires the property-tax base to be recalculated annually during an extension. The records reviewed do not include a projection of the potential dollar impact for Downtown.
The plan recommends beginning extension planning before 2037, including goals for sharing increment, handling existing reimbursement agreements and coordinating with the El Paso County assessor. It also identifies possible bonding of an estimated $9 million to $10 million in unpledged 2027-2037 increment, allocating 25% to 30% of TIF to capital improvements and using part of the DDA’s dedicated 5-mill levy for ongoing Clean and Safe services. Those are recommendations, not adopted appropriations or financing commitments.