Scenic & Historic Byways Planning Workshop

Client: Colorado Historical Society & The Scenic & Historic Byways Commission

Site: Statewide

In 1992, the Collaborative assisted the Colorado Historical Society and the Colorado Scenic and Historic Byways Commission in preparing a grant proposal to the Gates Foundation for monetary assistance in planning the implementation of the state’s Scenic and Historic Byways Program. The Collaborative’s assistance was requested because of the firm’s expertise in statewide heritage tourism planning. While The Gates Foundation expressed a desire to fund the entire program, monetary assistance was in part depended on the success of a requested preliminary planning workshop. This workshop was designed to bring Byways participants together to develop agreements on model planning approaches and obtain commitments to participate in the planning process. The Collaborative planned, organized, and facilitated a two-day planning workshop for approximately 100 participants representing each of the 17 Scenic and Historical Byways, the Commission, and more than 20 federal and state agencies. Each participant brought their agency’s agenda to the workshop, and pooled their expertise, resulting in a draft model for a Scenic and Historic Byways Plan. There was unanimous support for the proposed planning process, and commitments to participate in the program model. Subsequently, the “Model Plan” was further refined and distributed to each Byway for adoption of its use. All participants, including the agencies committed to the plan formulation and funding, along with the program funding that would be guided by individual Byway Plans.