Neighborhood associations adjacent to Monument Creek and Fountain Creek in Colorado Springs are currently busy reviewing an ambitious long-term plan for the redevelopment of those two bodies of water.

The portion of the two creeks to be redeveloped begins where Monument Creek, flowing southward, passes under Garden of the Gods Road. The creek then flows by Pikeview Reservoir, Goose Gossage Park and the Roswell neighborhood.

Next come Monument Valley Park and Colorado College. Then on to America the Beautiful Park, where Monument Creek flows into Fountain Creek, and then past the former site of the Martin Drake Power Plant.

The two-creeks redevelopment project ends near where Fountain Creek passes under South Nevada Avenue, at the present site of Dorchester Park.

Thinking big, this plan could transform Monument and Fountain creeks and their immediate neighborhoods in creative and expansive ways.

The water in the two creeks will, according to these plans, be made fit for human uses such as wading and tubing by tearing down the straight and steep-edged levees, or dikes, that currently confine much of each streambed. This will let the water spread out over a larger area.

Curving the streambed and installing working floodplain terraces also will improve water quality. This plan envisions approximately 37 acres of new floodplain and water-quality improvement areas.

A total of five sandy beaches will be created where adults can sit on the beach and small children go wading and play in the creek waters.

The first sandy beach will be on the west side of Monument Creek in Monument Valley Park near the West Fontanero Street interchange on Interstate 25. Folks who live in the Near West Side and Mesa Springs neighborhoods can access this beach via West Fontanero (which runs under I-25 and the railroad track).

A pedestrian bridge, built right at the sandy beach, will cross Monument Creek and make the beach accessible to residents of the Roswell and Old North End neighborhoods.

A second sandy beach, just to the south of the West Uintah Street bridge, will be on the east side of Monument Creek at Colorado College. It will be readily available to the entire CC community and close neighbors.

Across the creek at that point will be the old Van Briggle Pottery, now part of Colorado College.

Here again, a pedestrian bridge over Monument Creek will make the lake and other park facilities on the west side of Monument Creek available to the sandy beach and the college community.

The third beach will be at America the Beautiful Park, thereby creating a sandy beach accessible to the downtown area.

A fourth beach will be located on the east side of Fountain Creek where the Drake plant was formerly located. The closing of Drake and the availability of its land provides the opportunity for a great deal of recreational development on both sides of Fountain Creek in that area.

The fifth beach will be where Fountain Creek passes under South Nevada Avenue. A pedestrian bridge over the creek at this location will make the sandy beach available to the Ivywild neighborhood.

For one stretch of Fountain Creek, running from America the Beautiful Park to the present-day site of Dorchester Park at South Nevada Avenue, the creek will be deep enough for adults to go fishing, tubing, and paddleboarding.

The reason for this is that Fountain Creek drops rapidly in elevation from America the Beautiful Park to Dorchester Park, thereby creating a faster current of water.

At Colorado College, the plan calls for a small open-air stage for dramatic presentations that will be located at the side of Monument Creek. The audience will sit on the adjacent hillside running along the edge of the creek.

The popular biker-hiker trails along Monument and Fountain creeks often currently sit on top of levees and dikes high above and far away from the running water. With the levees and dikes removed, biker-hiker trails can be relocated closer to the streams and add a close-by aquatic feature to the trail experience.

In areas where the land adjacent to the creeks is marshy or sometimes flooded, the biker hiker trails will be located on boardwalks with their distinctive atmosphere for walking and bike riding.

There will be two opportunities within the Monument and Fountain creeks stream valleys to create new housing and commercial projects. One will be at the present site of the Fontanero Service Yard, a Colorado Springs city-owned vehicle servicing and storage facility at West Fontanero Street and I-25.

One side of the service yard runs right along Monument Creek and thus new residents would have immediate access to the creek. This could be an ideal place for removing the service yard and building a “new town in town.”

There would be all-new construction filled with a mixture of low-rise and perhaps high-rise apartment buildings and the commercial stores and offices needed to serve area residents.

This new residential area would be handy to Colorado College and Penrose Hospital. Downtown would be only a short commute away.

The other area available for such intense urban redevelopment would be the former Drake site.

This property is large and has a long edge running along Fountain Creek. It is close to the new downtown soccer stadium, the Olympic & Paralympic Museum, and the Mill Street neighborhood. It will be adjacent to the section of Fountain Creek designated for tubing and paddleboarding.

It could be possible at this site to build office buildings as well as low-rise and high-rise apartment buildings plus local commercial services. It would be an urban infill project.

Where to start? We would support building one of the five sandy beaches and seeing if it is a success. If people like it and spend time at it, that will create support for building the next four sandy beaches.

Another place to start might be the Fontanero Service Yard. It will provide highly desirable housing during our current housing shortage.

This Monument and Fountain creeks development plan was funded by Lyda Hill and her foundation. She was the major patron for the Garden of the Gods Visitor Center and is the daughter of the family that founded the Garden of the Gods Resort & Club.

Many local planning and development agencies have worked on it and upgraded it. It is worth consideration. Keep in mind this plan would have to be implemented over a decade or more. And it will be expensive and will require great administrative leadership.