If you've driven around the greater downtown Grand Junction area lately, you may have noticed there's lots of vacant land. Now, the city is working on a plan to develop the area.

In the Greater Downtown Area Plan, the city is looking to put the land to better use. The city wants to continue to fill in vacant areas and keep new developments concentrated in the downtown area. It says now is the perfect time to start those plans.

Kannah Creek is known for its food and of course, it's brewery.

"We've been working on this plan for almost 10 years now," Kannah Creek general manager Eric Ross said.

The beer may be well known, but many may not know the owners are looking to build a new brewery to start packaging their beer.

"We're getting closer. Now we're just waiting on the SBA to do their final paperwork," Ross said.

This new brewery would be on its land off Riverside Parkway, an area the city is looking to revamp with its greater downtown area plan.

"This plan is trying to create some new uses along 7th Street and the [Riverside] Parkway that will compliment some other public uses down in there," city senior planner of neighborhood services Kristen Ashbeck said.

According to Ashbeck, the city of Grand Junction is planning to develop and re-develop areas spanning from North Avenue to the river, and 28 Road to Riverside Parkway.

"We have talked to some property owners who already are talking about expanding a business," she said.

The area is split into three districts for the plan: the Downtown District, Rail District and River District, all of which have unique needs and concerns.

"The railroad area, certainly protecting the heavy industry that we have down there is certainly important," Ashbeck said.

The Downtown District has space for new development so the city is looking at mixed use buildings, and the River District could accommodate things other than commercial and industrial buildings.

Bryan Wiman bought land from 9th Street to 13th Street along Riverside Parkway in 2007. He didn't develop on his land earlier because of the struggling market.

"We were looking down the road at some future development," Wiman said.

Now he thinks the city has a solid plan in place to better use the land.

"I think this is a nice opportunity to look at some in-fill in an area that frankly has never really been looked at," Wiman said.

The city has revised more detailed proposals for the future land use.

"There's just a lot of great potential for that area and I think once we start building and the city starts building, you'll see a lot of people jump on board," Ross said.

So until those plans go into action, some residents and local business owners will look forward to the developments.
The city is still looking for community input. It held its first open house back in December and based on the feedback, developed this new plan of action. Many of the early concerns revolved around residential areas wanting to maintain their properties as they were; the historical park areas had many asking the surrounding neighborhoods be left alone.

The city will present that new plan at its next open house on Thursday, February 23. The meeting will be held at the Whitman building on 4th and Ute from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. It will go over revised and more detailed proposals.