Introductory sessions are underway for the future of the Drake site | tidings
Less than two months after the Martin Drake Power Plant closed for good, community meetings are underway to help build a vision for the site’s future.
Drake — which sits on the edge of Downtown and can be seen as you look toward I-15 and the mountains — stopped burning coal in 2021, and its natural gas units were turned off at the end of August, in line with energy goals clean. Colorado Springs Utilities’ Sustainable Energy Plan was adopted in 2020.
Drake’s community drop-in sessions began on October 13th, and the two remaining meetings are this week: Tuesday, October 18, 1-3pm at Library 21c, 1175 Chapel Hills Dr.; and Wednesday, Oct. 19, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Knights of Columbus Hall, 20 W. Pikes Peak Ave.
The Downtown Partnership and the Legacy Institute last year assembled “a diverse task force of community volunteers to envision the future of this catalytic site,” according to Drake’s Downtown Partnership community drop-in sessions Web page. This task force is gathering input from the community on options for the area’s future through its public meetings.
Susan Edmondson, president and CEO of the Downtown Partnership, says it’s a separate process from Colorado Springs Utilities, though with the awareness and support of its leadership.
“The goal is to deliver a report to the CS Utilities board with a framework for the vision of the site,” she tells the Indy via email. “Of course, the final decisions on the site rest with the Utilities board and will take place over several years, likely to include a formal master planning process.”
According to notes from the first meeting, community-based input has included feedback from nearby Mill Street and Hillside neighborhoods, a review of neighborhood master plans, a meeting with the Mill Street Neighborhood Association, Greenway Flats and Hillside Community focus groups Center. and a “stakeholder visioning session.”
The Task Force includes: Terrell Brown, Hillside Connection; Heather Carroll, Edmondson Foundation; Susan Edmondson, Downtown Partnership; Jeff Finn, Nor’Wood; Cecilia Harry, Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC, Patience Kabwasa, Food to Power; Chris Lieber, NES; Natasha Main, Cambium Carboni; Zach McComsey, Springs Legacy Group; Bobby Mikulas, Kinship Landing; Darsey Nicklasson, DHN Development; Laura Neumann, Weidner Apartment House; Hannah Parsons, Barn Owl; and Mary Sprunger-Froese, Mill Street Ward.
For details on the process and meetings, cin contact [email protected]