As Boulder staffers continue revitalizing the city’s historic heart, they are now pitching two broad conceptual themes for the area’s future. One of those themes could include adventurous additions like a sculptural skate park or even a zipline between downtown and University Hill.

Community members have until early to mid-December to weigh in on these two themes, either of which could transform the city’s civic area — the region between Ninth Street, Canyon Boulevard, 14th Street and Arapahoe Avenue — in differing ways. Staffers developed these themes using public feedback that was previously gathered.

One theme, dubbed Creekside Social, emphasizes enhanced walkways, social gathering spaces and a space that feels connected with the natural environment. Elements of the design might include an outdoor nature gym, a nature immersion area, gathering spaces and pathways along the creek, and a mobility hub for bikes, buses and scooters.

The other theme, Adventure Loop, has a more dynamic, active and artsy vibe. For this theme, staffers have proposed features ranging from an immersive art tunnel or a mural crosswalk across Broadway to a splash pad, a bouldering wall or a surf wave feature in the creek.

Both themes have a few common features, like an enhanced Arboretum Garden path connecting to the University of Colorado Boulder campus, an improved kids’ play area near the library, and a more established area for the popular Farmers Market.

But overall, the themes offer two distinct paths forward, according to Shihomi Kuriyagawa, a senior landscape planner for Boulder. She said community members have seemed especially excited about the Adventure Loop theme.

“(The Adventure Loop is) a little bit different from the Creekside Social. So if you think about Creekside Social as more green, open, flexible, casual, that’s really what that scheme entails,” she said. “Adventure Loop really talks about the specific, almost high-use recreation wants that we heard from the public. So, things like the skate park and a bigger amphitheater to host bigger venues. … This one also is really fun.”

The zipline, Kuriyagawa said, was a suggestion some community members had made for the area. There was a desire for “novelty recreation” in the civic area.“What we heard from the city is, yeah, let’s make it fun. And residents came up with a whole host of novel, fun ideas to get down the Hill,” she said.

The community has wanted some way to connect the downtown area with the Hill for some time now. A few years ago, there was momentum building for Boulder to look at setting up a gondola that would run between the Hill and downtown, but the idea never materialized.

Kuriyagawa also emphasized that the zipline and other possible features in each of the themes for the civic area are just ideas that came from earlier public feedback. The city has not yet looked into the cost or feasibility of implementing these options, so they are not guaranteed to happen. The city also doesn’t have enough money to implement all of these ideas at once, if at all, according to Kuriyagawa.

Community members wanting to give feedback on the themes can do so via an online questionnaire, which is available in English and Spanish at bit.ly/4hOyceg.

They can also visit pop-up stations at the South Boulder Recreation Center, North Boulder Recreation Center or East Boulder Community Center. The questionnaire and pop-up stations will be available through at least the first week of December.

Historically, the civic area has been the home of city government facilities, including the Penfield Tate II Municipal Building, and served as a community gathering space. The area includes iconic landmarks like the Boulder Bandshell and the Boulder-Dushanbe Tea House and is also the site of Boulder’s Farmers Market.

The Civic Area project aims to revitalize this part of town and transform it into a thriving cultural and commercial center with some open space. Recently, community members have given a variety of feedback on the area, including that they want to see it become a welcoming, inclusive, multicultural area with space for arts, entertainment and gathering. Many have also said they’re concerned about illegal activity in the civic area and that they want the area to become safer.

Initial planning for the Civic Area project started in 2012. By 2018, the city made improvements to the green space surrounding Boulder Creek between the library and the municipal building, but the project was sidelined for a few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Staffers resumed work on it in January 2023.