Design Downtown Denton

The final report is available under Important Documents to the right!

The Design Downtown Denton Plan Final Report was adopted by the City Council of the City of Denton on September 17, 2024!

__________________________

The City is excited to continue working with the community on the recommendations and action steps outlined in this 20-Year Plan!

Below, check out some of the Advisory Group members favorite recommendations from the plan!

The 'Design Downtown Denton: The Feedback Finale' was held at the Greater Denton Arts Council at 400 E Hickory Street on Thursday, May 9th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. The team invited members of the community to come and help prioritize development and infrastructure actions to be taken by the City during the first five-years of the plan's implementation. The consultant team gave a short presentation providing participants with "A Day in the Life" to help them envision Downtown Denton's future and then shared the goals for the evening, including the budgeting activity to complete at the end of their visit.

The event saw approximately 65 attendees, made up of residents, students, councilmembers, property and business owners.

Following the event, the team announced that a new activity to gather community feedback is now live on the interactive website(External link). The activity will remain open through Monday, May 27th, 2024.

On Thursday, May 9th, join us for Design Downtown Denton: The Feedback Finale! This workshop will be an opportunity for YOU to help set project priorities for the latest ideas - new open spaces and amenities, street improvements including bike lanes, more housing options, parking solutions, and more - being proposed for the future of Downtown Denton. The workshop will be held at the Greater Denton Arts Council at 400 E Hickory Street from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.

To help us get a general idea of how many people plan on attending, please visit our Eventbrite page to RSVP to the event!

We invite you to be a part of shaping the future of our beloved Downtown Denton. Remember this is YOUR VOICE, YOUR CHOICE!

April has been a busy month, especially as we prep for Design Downtown Denton: The Feedback Finale (see above) in early May!

Advisory Group Meeting #3

On Tuesday, April 16th, the Advisory Group held their third meeting. The discussion focused on providing feedback to the team regarding the four proposed catalyst projects and the four project recommendations, with action items, related to the Design Downtown Denton plan. The Advisory Group did not have any major concerns with the reported information and provided feedback for the team to incorporate moving forward.

To learn more about the proposed catalyst projects and the project recommendations, check out the 'Important Documents' section and click on 'Design Downtown Denton Advisory Group Meeting 3 Presentation.'

Quakertown Park Design Workshop and Redbud Festival

The Quakertown Park Design Workshop was held at the Denton Civic Center on Wednesday, April 17th from 5:30 to 7 pm. The team invited members of the community to come and provide feedback on two conceptual plans for Quakertown Park - 'Embracing Ecology' and 'Timelines of Denton.'

Concept 1: Embracing Ecology

Concept 2: Timelines of Denton

In addition, the team asked the community about the future of a Quakertown monument, asking participants to indicate the types of emotion the monument space should evoke and select examples of monuments from around the world that they felt would honor the story of Quakertown.

The event saw approximately 20 attendees, made up of residents and Downtown business owners.

The two conceptual plans were also shared at the Redbud Festival on Saturday, April 20th. Feedback gathered from the design workshop and the festival will be utilized to finalize a concept plan for Quakertown Park to be displayed at Design Downtown Denton: The Feedback Finale.

Join us on Wednesday, April 17th from 5:30 to 7:00 pm for the Quakertown Park Design Workshop! The event will take place in the main hall of Denton Civic Center (321 E McKinney Street).

The event will include a presentation of the Quakertown Park project process and community feedback received to-date. Additionally, the event will feature an open workshop that includes discussion of conceptual plans and examples, and the opportunity for you all to provide feedback and sketches of your own ideas for the park!

See you all there!

On January 15th, the Design Downtown Denton team concluded gathering feedback on the interactive website activities for "Phase 2: Envision." The project team received approximately 60 responses in relation to Quakertown Park amenities and approximately 100 responses to the Community Priority rankings (see below). Later in the month, the project team partnered with two local organizations, the Denton Black Film Festival and the Greater Denton Arts Council, for additional public comment to wrap up Phase 2's round of engagement. The summary of engagement from this phase can be found under the 'Important Documents' section of this page.

Moving into February, the project team is almost complete with Phase 2 and is presently transitioning into "Phase 3: Act" of the Design Downtown Denton plan! As part of Phase 3, there will be more opportunities for Denton citizens to provide feedback to the Design Downtown Denton project team. Dates, times, and locations are still being determined for the Quakertown and Implementation Workshops, but these are likely to occur in April and May of this year. Staff will notify the public once this information is finalized and update this page accordingly.

November and early December have been a whirlwind, but an exciting time for the Design Downtown Denton team!

Advisory Group Meeting #2

On Thursday, November 16th, the Advisory Group held their second meeting, covering a number of topics. The Advisory Group received a report on the public engagement results gathered during the late summer and early fall, and were introduced to the draft "Case for Action" for the plan. The group also received a report and provided direction on the plan's draft project Vision and Community Priority Statements, as well as draft workshop activities for the December 4th 'Design Downtown Denton Visioning Workshop.' Direction and feedback provided by the Advisory Group on the plan's draft project Vision and Community Priority Statements guided what was presented at the Joint Workshop on December 5th.

'Design Downtown Denton' Visioning Workshop

The 'Design Downtown Denton Visioning Workshop' (click link for video) was held at UNT CoLab at 207 N Elm Street on Monday, December 4th from 6 to 8 pm. The team invited members of the community to come and contribute their ideas and visions for the development and enhancement of the downtown area. There were four activity stations, which required attendees' active participation and feedback. The consultant team gave a short presentation providing a brief background about the project, the steps that have taken place leading up to the visioning workshop, and the goal of the evening. The event saw approximately 60 attendees, made up of residents, students, and property and business owners. Initial feedback gathered from the visioning workshop was presented at the December 5th Joint Workshop, and will be utilized to help establish action steps for the Design Downtown Denton plan.

Also, the team announced that a new round of activities to gather community feedback is now live on the interactive website. These will close after January 15th, 2024.

Joint Workshop

The Planning & Zoning Commission, Parks, Recreation and Beautification Board, and City Council held their first Joint Workshop for the Design Downtown Denton plan on Tuesday, December 5th. The purpose of the discussion was to provide the team direction on the Community Priorities for the Design Downtown Denton plan, which in the future, will assist in developing actions, such as projects, policies, and programs that can be implemented to guide downtown through the next 15 to 20 years.

We are excited for 2024!

Join us for an exciting in-person event, the Design Downtown Denton Visioning Workshop! This workshop will be held at UNT CoLab at 207 N Elm Street on Monday, December 4th from 6 to 8 pm. We invite you to be a part of shaping the future of our beloved downtown Denton. This workshop aims to bring together passionate individuals who want to contribute their ideas and visions for the development and enhancement of our downtown area.

To help us get a general idea of how many people plan on attending, please visit our Eventbrite page to RSVP to the event!

The Design Downtown Denton project team held a Quakertown Park Visioning Workshop from 9am to 9pm this past Saturday, October 7th at the Arts & Jazz Fest. Tents were set up next to the Law Office of Tim Powers' UNT Jazz Stage and featured a number of exercises, including visual boards that attendees could mark with stickers to indicate their preferred park features and designs, a comment board with “big picture” park questions, and a paper survey focused on how attendees traveled to Quakertown Park and how they use the space. In addition to these exercises, children activities were included, such as the “design-a-park” coloring activity.

Over the course of the day, the project team was able to interact with and gather feedback from well over 200 attendees of all ages. All feedback was recorded and will be used to help guide the project team's preparation of the initial vision for the new Quakertown Park plan. A future event is planned to seek feedback from direct decedents of Quakertown Park regarding any memorial ideas.

The Downtown Denton plan update process has publicly launched as “Design Downtown Denton," with an interactive website and a logo designed by local artist, Jude Landry, to capture the many facets of Downtown!

We invite you to visit the website HERE to see our upcoming events and use the interactive activities to help Design Downtown Denton! Most importantly, between now and October 30^th, we need residents to go to the site to tell us what you love about Downtown and what you think Downtown needs, and to use the interactive map to “pin” and comment on your ideas and concerns for specific locations Downtown. In addition, you can participate in our Downtown Denton photo contest by posting your photos and voting too! Please share the site with your Denton friends, family, clubs, classmates, and any other groups of residents of which you’re a part – we need everyone to get involved in helping Design Downtown Denton!

In addition to the official launch, over the last two weekends, the Design Downtown Denton team has been out in the community gathering feedback at a number of great local events! We were out at Arts & Autos, hearing from residents and visitors about what they love about Downtown and about what Downtown needs. On Park(ing) Day, the team was out on the Square, asking residents to use color-coded push pins on a large-scale map of Downtown (see below), to mark their likes, concerns, and ideas about specific locations and during the Denton Blues Festival, the team heard from a wide range of community members, including a number of young families, about what brings them Downtown, and about what they believe is still needed to make it safer, easier, and more enjoyable to visit and spend time Downtown.

The team will continue to be out at local events throughout the Fall, so be on the lookout for our table and stop by to provide us with your feedback! In addition, be on the lookout for posters, yard signs, coasters and more popping up around the Downtown area. These will provide you with the QR code and other ways to participate. We look forward to Design(ing) Downtown Denton with you!