Department of Community Development
Reference: Downtown Public Realm Study Update
To: Mayor Gregory Mills and Members of City Council
Through: Michael P. Martinez, City Manager
Prepared By: Emma Lane, AICP, Senior Planner - Historic Preservation
Date Prepared: March 5, 2026
PURPOSE
The purpose of this Study Session item is to provide an update on the projects from the Brighton Downtown Public Realm Study that staff has completed or partially completed, and to contemplate and discuss future items that may be completed in the near future.
BACKGROUND
In December of 2024, City staff contracted with Dig Studio to create a Downtown Public Realm Study to evaluate the public spaces within Brighton's downtown. The plan focuses on the feasibility of certain changes to the public realm in downtown.
Staff worked with the consultant to provide recommendations for public realm upgrades, and the consultant compiled these into the final Brighton Downtown Public Realm Study. The plan includes feasibility of traffic circulation changes and recommends a two-way traffic pattern while removing parking on both sides of North Main Street for the first two blocks north of East Bridge Street. This allows for the public realm space to be expanded to 20 feet on either side of the street. In its final configuration, this recommendation proposes special paving and shared street patterns, including curb-less design which will integrate the public spaces and slow traffic speeds.
While the roadway improvements are a main focus of the document, ancillary public realm improvement recommendations have also been provided within the document, in a format that prioritizes items into short-term, medium-term and long-term projects to make each item more feasible. This provides a menu of smaller improvements that can be completed in any order, while also allowing for multiple projects to be completed at the same time if feasible. Please refer to the final document for details regarding speci...
Click here for full text