Denver's plan for First Avenue between Downing Street and University Boulevard is really two projects that share a name. Voters funded one of them in November 2025. The other is the wider Cherry Creek Trail that Country Club residents asked for, and it has no identified funding to move past a concept drawing. If you use that stretch of trail, the first construction you see will be at the University end. The 8-to-9-foot path along the Denver Country Club fence will probably stay as it is for a while.
The city's own materials say this plainly. The project page lists the 1st Avenue Redesign as in "Design," and it names Country Club, Cherry Creek and Alamo Placita Park as the affected neighborhoods. The boards shown at the November 15, 2025 public meeting go further and split the work into two tracks. One reads "Funding Secured." The other reads "No resources identified to advance past this phase."
Eight feet of trail, a curb, and one of Denver's busiest streets
Between Downing and University, the Cherry Creek Trail runs on the south side of First Avenue, squeezed between traffic and the Denver Country Club. According to the City of Denver's project page, this section varies from 8 to 9 feet wide, not counting the sidewalk on the bridge. Denver Parks & Recreation's standard for a regional trail is 12 feet. The city says the segment is too narrow to meet that standard and that residents raised concerns about safety and comfort on the trail and at the intersections at each end.
A lot of people squeeze into that width. The November 2025 meeting boards put Cherry Creek Trail use at 600,000 users a year. Winter narrows it further. The city notes that plowed snow gets pushed to the road edge and spills onto the sidewalk, which takes away more of the usable trail.
The intersections at either end carry their own record. The same boards count 89 crashes at Downing/Corona, 4 of them involving people biking or walking, and 73 at University, 3 involving people biking or walking. The boards say these cover "the past five years" but don't give the dates.
Two projects, one name
The project grew out of Denver Moves: Cherry Creek, a transportation plan the city finished in 2024. It combined three of that plan's highest-priority items: improvements at 1st & University, improvements at 1st & Corona/Downing, and widening the trail. The money only went to one of the three.
| 1st Ave & University intersection | 1st Ave corridor, Downing to University | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Safety changes at one intersection, such as signal and geometric changes | A 12-foot trail, a new south-side tree lawn, a narrower median, and work at Downing/Corona |
| Funding | $5.7 million in the 2025 Vibrant Denver Bond | "No resources identified to advance past this phase" |
| Where it stands | Funded to advance design and construction | A 30% concept; construction timeline "not yet known" |
The bond line is specific. The Vibrant Denver Bond project list includes "1st & University Intersection Improvements" for $5,700,000, aimed at safety for people walking, biking, riding transit and driving through that one intersection. City Council approved the list on August 4, 2025, and voters approved the package on November 4, 2025. The list has no separate line for widening the trail between Downing and University.
The corridor work is being taken only as far as what the city calls "30% Design," a preliminary stage meant to set scope and produce a cost estimate. DOTI expects the full build to cost more than $1 million and to involve major roadway reconstruction. It says construction "could take several years from plan recommendation to implementation."
Why the trail can't just take a few feet
The corridor is the costly half because every cheaper option failed. The city's FAQ lists the alternatives it tested and why each one lost:
- Remove an eastbound lane. First Avenue is one of Denver's busiest streets and is planned as a future bus rapid transit corridor. Taking out a lane would make BRT "difficult or impossible."
- Shift the curb about 1.5 feet north. This still means rebuilding the curb, sidewalk and drainage, and the result would be a 9.5-to-10-foot trail that still misses the standard.
- Install jersey barriers. Required clearances would put the barrier on the trail itself, leaving about 6 feet of usable width.
- Move the trail to the north side. This would add 8 to 10 new conflict points and might require major changes to the Downing Street bridge over Cherry Creek.
- Build center-running bike lanes. Cyclists would have to cross eastbound traffic, and most of the median trees would likely come out.
- Go into Denver Country Club property, either directly south or along the creek. This brings land costs, conflicts with golf play, changes to the course, and creek impacts.
That leaves narrowing the median. Shifting traffic north into median space makes room for a 12-foot trail and an 8-foot tree lawn with a curb between cars and trail users. All travel lanes stay. The Denver Moves: Cherry Creek plan explains why keeping three lanes in each direction matters, since it preserves room for a future bus-only lane each way.
Because First Avenue here is a historic parkway, the preferred design also restores something. The north side already has an established tree lawn, but most of the south side between Downing and University does not. The city frames the new trees as bringing the street closer to Denver's parkway guidelines. It's the option with the fewest tradeoffs, and it also requires rebuilding a historic street, which is a big reason it's still waiting for money.
What the funded corner could look like
The University intersection is the change that has a budget, and it's the eastern end of the trail segment. Denver Moves: Cherry Creek described the problems there as fast slip-lane turns, long crossings and signal delays. It recommended raised crossings at the slip lanes in the short term and a study of removing them altogether in the long term. It also called the corner a potential mobility hub linking the trail, University bus service, and a proposed Speer/Leetsdale BRT line.
The November 2025 meeting boards showed two concepts for University:
- Redesigned turn channels with raised crossings and rapid-flashing beacons.
- Removing the channelized slip turns, reshaping the corners, and adding "No Right-Turn On Red."
The boards say the final design may combine parts of both. For the Downing/Corona end, they show a revised right turn, relocated bus stops and new striping, all with space kept for future BRT. The Downing concept belongs to the corridor track, though, and has no funding of its own.
What residents asked for, and the trees
DOTI says it heard from more than 400 community members across two engagement phases. That included two public meetings, a virtual one on June 18, 2025 and an in-person one on November 15, 2025, along with two stakeholder working-group meetings and a pop-up on the Cherry Creek Trail. According to the engagement summary, trail users asked for more width, a buffer from traffic, shade and wayfinding. For the intersections, people raised speeding, confusing geometry and unsafe crossings, especially at Downing and University. Participants also supported keeping three travel lanes and improving the Denver Country Club's Gilpin Street entrance.
The median canopy is where opinions split. Participants wanted new greenery, and they also asked the city to protect the existing median trees and the parkway's historic character. In October 2025, Denver7 reported that one resident worried about losing existing trees and about vehicles entering the sidewalk, while another welcomed a tree buffer. The station also reported a DOTI planner saying some median trees would be affected but that the city expected more total canopy once new trees were planted. The city says exactly how much the median shrinks hasn't been decided, and that tree experts have assessed the whole median to keep impacts low.
What has to happen before the trail gets wider
The meeting boards list the remaining steps for the corridor:
- Develop cost ranges.
- Further assess solutions.
- Further investigate historic implications.
- Bring the project before the Landmark Preservation Committee.
- Keep revising the design with community input.
- Secure funding to advance design.
- Move to construction.
The funded intersection has a shorter road ahead, but it hasn't started either. Denver issued the first $410 million tranche of Vibrant Denver Bond funds on March 5, 2026, and said the money would go to design, land acquisition where needed, and some construction. As of April 2026, Denverite's bond tracker reported that construction hadn't begun on any bond project and that most were still in development. We found no 2026 news coverage that updates the corridor's status, and as of October 12, 2026, the city's page still says the construction timeline is unknown.
The city runs a sign-up for project updates, and the project page names DOTI's Marie Thoming as the contact.
Projects like the First Avenue parkway work move slowly, and they shape how Country Club works day to day. At Downing Street Group, we keep track of them for our clients, along with what's funded, what's only drawn, and which blocks they touch. If you'd like to talk through how changes on the neighborhood's edges fit your own plans, request a private consultation.
