LDDA seeks community input for Longmont Downtown District

Do you have thoughts on Longmont’s Downtown District? The Longmont Downtown Development Authority, or LDDA, is partnering with the University of Colorado-Boulder’s Community Engagement Design and Research Center, or CEDaR, for a research study on how visitors and residents perceive Downtown Longmont.

“The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have touched everyone. As the community recovers from a period of uncertainty, it’s imperative that the people of Longmont share what they want to see downtown in the future,” said LDDA Executive Director Kimberlee McKee in a press release.

The short survey, available in English and Spanish, addresses several topics relevant to Downtown Longmont, the LDDA and Longmont Creative District. Presented in multiple choice and open-ended questions, the survey delves into preferences for shopping and dining, downtown events and recommendations for improving the downtown area in general.

The survey was designed by students and faculty at CEDaR over a period of years, according to Brian Muller, CEDaR director and associate professor of sustainable planning and urban design at University of Colorado-Boulder. Initial work began before COVID-19 but was suspended until recently.

CEDaR students have been involved in other collaborations with the LDDA in the past, including the St. Stephens Plaza Redevelopment in the spring of 2020 and the Longmont Downtown Revitalization Project in the summer of 2019. 

CEDaR is an undergraduate environmental design program encompassing architects, urban planners and landscape architects, Muller said, and the students have worked on the projects to gain an understanding in design and city planning as well as the research methods involved.

“The students have been really happy about the opportunity to participate and it’s been a good pedagogical experience for them,” Muller said.

The survey will be live for at least the next month, according to both McKee and Muller, and community outreach events are being planned to get the survey to as many people as possible. Survey input is entirely confidential and anonymous, Muller said. CEDaR is already looking at data from the survey responses as they come in, Muller said, and the group is happy with the response they’re seeing so far.

Survey results will be publicized by CEDaR and the LDDA sometime in early 2022. The survey can be found online through the LDDA’s website. Participants have a chance to win a Downtown Longmont gift card for filling out the survey.

“We have no expectations for the answers and are hoping to have a fresh view of community perceptions, needs and desires,” McKee said. “Our hope is that we hear from people that regularly come downtown as well as those who rarely come downtown.”