executive summary
Des Moines has selected 6th Avenue to receive streetscape improvements that add green infrastructure for a range of community, economic, and environmental benefits. The city wants to create a new model for infrastructure upgrades and investment in an area that has suffered the effects of decades of disinvestment. The city asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for help with this effort through the Greening America’s Capitals program. This report includes a description of the three-day workshop held in the project area to engage stakeholders, residents, business owners, and community members in a process that outlined goals for the projects and developed design options that respond to those goals. The report also includes an assessment of the 6th Avenue corridor, outlining both assets and challenges that informed the design concepts. A set of design concepts are presented for several key locations chosen by the city and the 6th Avenue Corridor nonprofit. These locations were chosen based on their potential to help area businesses and residents, as well as their capacity to illustrate the transformative potential of green and complete streets. The design
concepts illustrate improved pedestrian amenities and safety features for pedestrians and bicyclists, as well as integrated green infrastructure components such as rain gardens, bioswales, and large street trees. Lastly, this report provides a few case study examples from other communities that have accomplished similar projects, as well as a list of potential next steps that the city and its partners could follow if they choose to implement the priority projects discussed during the workshop.