Picture West Colfax in the year 2040.
Maybe you see a town square where a parking lot sits today. Maybe you see kids riding bikes on safe sidewalks between Sheridan and Wadsworth, families gathered under string lights over new restaurants at Lamar Station Plaza or Westland Town Center, and restored neon signs, glowing over Route 40, the longest commercial street in America.
Pictures like those aren’t just daydreams. They are the working blueprint of the West Colfax VISION 2040 Action Plan, the community-built vision that has guided this corridor since the Lakewood City Council adopted it in August 2015–and it’s still evolving.
West Colfax’s future is not being decided somewhere far away. It’s being decided right now, in real time, by neighbors like you, who contribute ideas to the plan’s updates. This year, the community has a once-every-five-years opportunity to shape the next iteration of the plan, with the latest update set to be presented by the end of the year.
“West Colfax is more than just a street. People live here, they make memories here, they work here, they celebrate important events here, and they love it here! West Colfax is a community!” – Cindy Baroway, Lakewood City Council, 2008-2015, and Colfax corridor resident
Why the Plan Exists
People live here. They work here. They make memories here. But for all of West Colfax’s unique and quirky 150-year history, the corridor was missing one thing: a shared vision for the future that the whole community could rally behind, and a plan to capture and carry it forward.
That was the gap the Vision 2040 Action Plan aimed to fill. The idea was both practical and bold. The plan would codify a unifying community vision and, at the same time, show anyone looking to invest along West Colfax that the community was organized, capable of dreaming big and getting things done. The plan has always belonged to the people who live and work along the corridor, and it would speak on their behalf.
The Vision Plan Process
In 2014, a collection of engaged citizens convened to ask one bold question: What do we want this corridor to become by 2040?
More than 60 civic, business, and neighborhood leaders sat down together. They started by naming the hard problems out loud: the known issues impacting the corridor’s future. Then they dared to dream big about the solutions. The group met as a core team twice a month, broke into smaller advisory committees, and, at times, met weekly to gather input and weigh community priorities.
In a little more than a year, the West Colfax VISION 2040 Action Plan was born.
The plan organized everything around six ideas that still guide the corridor today: Cultural Identity, Infrastructure, Connectivity, Placemaking, Vibrancy, and Celebrating Colfax. Its goals and action steps with storytelling, visuals, sidebars, and “what if?” pages that gave the community permission to imagine.
The plan was designed to be a living document. Built into it is a guiding principle that the document be reviewed every five years with broadly inclusive engagement, gathering input from as many neighborhoods, property owners, business operators, and partner organizations as possible.
In 2020 and 2021, a Vision Implementation Group of more than two dozen West Colfax Ambassadors reconvened, meeting month after month over Zoom through the pandemic, reviewing every goal and writing new ones.
And now the five-year review cycle has come around again. The 2026 update is underway, and it has been one of the most participatory rounds yet.
“With more flexible zoning, the catalytic impact of light rail, fresh creative energy from 40 West Arts and RMCAD, and the quirky history that makes Colfax cool, West Colfax is poised to be the next big thing in metro area real estate.” – Bob Murphy, Lakewood Mayor, April 2013
Where We Are Right Now
If you ever wonder whether a planning document can actually change a street, look around the corridor. The evidence is everywhere.
The 40 West ArtLine, now an award-winning four-mile walking and biking route lined with public art, started as a single “what if” in the plan. The HUB at 6501 West Colfax, once an abandoned Denver Drumstick Restaurant that sat vacant and deteriorating for more than a decade, is now the shared home of 40 West Arts District, West Colfax Community Association, and the Lakewood-West Colfax BID, and other creative venues!
Casa Bonita, the icon so many of us grew up loving, has reawakened. The $30 million West Colfax transportation safety project is reshaping the most dangerous stretch of the corridor into a safer, more beautiful space for everyone. The North Dry Gulch Improvement Project, the major flood-mitigation effort to protect homes and businesses along West Colfax.
And right now, the 2026 update is building on that momentum.
From June through November of 2025, the community walked through the plan chapter by chapter at WCCA’s third-Wednesday meetings. Cultural Identity and Placemaking in the summer. Infrastructure and Connectivity into the fall. Vibrancy and Celebrating Colfax as the leaves turned. Each chapter had its own homework, its own survey, its own response boards on easels, its own roundtable conversations.
Out of all that input, clear themes have emerged. Neighbors want the west end of the corridor activated. They want continued investment in arts and culture, more lighting, more trees, more gathering spaces, and a stronger sense of place from end to end. The “what ifs” of a decade ago have become the priorities of today, and a new round of “what ifs” is taking shape for tomorrow.
What’s Next: This Is Your Year to Shape the Plan
The 2026 update is being drafted now. Through this summer, the team is rolling up everything the community has contributed, presenting the draft at WCCA, and designing the updated document. Then, by year’s end, the refreshed VISION 2040 Action Plan will be presented at WCCA and then eventually to the Lakewood City Council. That moment will influence the corridor for the next five years.
Between now and then, your voice matters. There is still time to submit your “what ifs” and big ideas. Share your priorities. Tell the team what you want West Colfax to feel like in 2040. Add your “what if” and share your input here.
There are other doors wide open, too. Show up to WCCA, which meets on the third Wednesday of every month at the HUB, 6501 West Colfax Avenue. Invite the Vision 2040 team to your ward or neighborhood association meeting and put the plan on the agenda. Become a West Colfax Ambassador. And come to City Council when the updated plan is presented, because a packed room sends a message no document ever could.
The people who started this plan back in 2014 understood something simple and powerful. No one should be afraid to fall short of a big dream, because nothing great gets built unless we first believe it’s possible. That belief is the corridor’s real infrastructure. It’s what turned a vacant restaurant into a community HUB and a “what if” into the ArtLine.
So, picture West Colfax in 2040 one more time. Then join to help build it. The plan going to City Council this fall is being written now, and there is still a blank line waiting for your big ideas.
Visit WCCA’s website to add your “what if” and share your input here.
