The Redevelopment Agency (RDA) of the City of Indio initiated a major reconstruction effort with their proposed Revitalization of the Downtown Core area consisting of 64 acres. Amassing a large ownership stake within the Downtown area, the City of Indio has a strong desire to promote new business and high density housing developments in an attempt to revitalize the area. The main obstacle associated with this overall revitalization effort is the relocation of backbone utility facilities from the existing alley ways to the main streets and thus provide larger block parcels for future redevelopment. The relocation of the overhead utilities will include the undergrounding of the electrical, communications and cable TV facilities. Early on in the project development process, City Staff was extremely interested in providing a ìshowcaseî segment that would highlight the proposed redevelopment concept. This showcase segment turned out to be Miles Avenue and Towne Street, immediately in the heart of the existing downtown commercial district. One other element of this initial showcase segment was that construction activities needed to be completed on Miles Avenue prior to the first week in December, in time for a revealing at the International Tamale Festival. With eight months in which to design and construction of this initial segment, consultant staff immediately began to prepare concept plans for both the street and landscaping. The street concept plan reconfigured Miles Avenue from a one-way street back to a two-way street, closed the vehicle alley ways, and provided intersection bulb outs on both Miles Avenue and Towne Street as well as maximized the sidewalk area. The landscape concept outlined the proposed urban street design elements outside of the proposed street configuration, which included planting scheme, locations of benches, drinking fountains, and trash receptacles, enhanced sidewalk, enhanced crosswalk pavements and seat walls. The landscape concept plan was utilized by RDA staff to gain consensus of City Management as well as the local business owners.
The Phase 1 civil improvements included plans for sewer and water relocations, street reconstruction, traffic signal modification, street lighting, landscaping, landscape lighting, hardscape improvements, street furniture, alley way conversion to pedestrian and landscape corridor, and dry utility relocations. In addition, RDA Staff asked that plans for two public parking areas also be included in the initial phase of construction, which provided 53 off street parking stalls.
The initial construction phase of Miles Avenue was completed in early December 2008, with the full project completed by August 2009, excluding relocation and undergrounding portion of the project. The construction cost for this Phase 1 portion of the Downtown Redevelopment project was $4.5 million.
