(Last updated 1/4/2007)

Downtown Livermore has always been the heart of the community.   It is the City's historic civic and cultural center and still remains an important gathering place where residents come together for special occasions and community events.   It also provides a mix of amenities, retail, dining and entertainments options that are unavailable elsewhere in the City.

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As part of a recent city-wide visioning and planning effort, a Downtown Specific Plan was adopted, targeting downtown Livermore for additional revitalization efforts, which are designed to draw more people and new businesses, and to establish downtown as the City's preeminent shopping, dining, entertainment and cultural district.   With a number of new projects already in the works, exciting changes are already well under way.

A People Friendly Downtown

The City has rezoned much of the downtown and simplified the City's permitting process for new downtown projects, with a focus on concentrating commercial uses in the downtown core and bringing new residential and office uses to the immediately surrounding neighborhoods.   Several new residential projects are already underway, and with up to 2,000 new units allowed downtown, the City is helping to establish a new, active urban living opportunity in Livermore, while also boosting business by bringing more people, activity and energy downtown.

Cultural and Entertainment Amenities

The new Downtown Specific Plan also has a strong emphasis on the arts and entertainment.   Downtown already boasts a variety of shops featuring the work of local artists and the new plan encourages additional art related shops, live/work artists lofts, an art walk and an artist workspace and rehearsal center. In addition, with a 10-screen movie theater and small performing arts theaters under construction, Downtown Livermore is well on the way to establishing itself as a vital arts and entertainment district.

City's Commitment to Downtown

In order to establish the kind of pedestrian-oriented public environment the City envisions, the City completed the First Street Streetscape project in Spring 2006.  First Street was narrowed from four lanes to two lanes through the downtown core.   Additional street trees, decorative trellises and information kiosks, as well as a "flex" zone, which will accommodate a combination of angled parking and outdoor dining and merchant display were constructed. In addition, a new public park, with fountain and trellis elements reminiscent of Livermore"s vineyard heritage, was built adjacent to the historic flagpole at the heart of the downtown core.

The city also upgraded existing utilities in the downtown to facilitate revitalization efforts, and a recently completed public parking structure with over 500 spaces that will accommodate over 100,000 square feet of new retail and entertainment uses that are already planned for downtown.   The kind of direct investment the City has undertaken with these improvement projects is representative of our commitment to creating an environment that will encourage people to walk, shop and linger, and further enhance downtown's position as the commercial, cultural and entertainment center of the City.   With a host of dramatic changes underway, there has never been a better time to be downtown.