Roadway’s rising: Atascadero's new Lewis Avenue Bridge

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• Downtown Atascadero: Plans for creek coming into focus

  Downtown Atascadero: Plans for creek coming into focus

  Plans for Atascadero’s new creekside plaza and footbridge — the latest efforts in the city’s downtown revitalization — continue to take shape with fresh additions such as memorial bricks and a time capsule.

  The City Council last week approved the design of the multi-element project for the area of Atascadero Creek between the Sunken Gardens and Colony Square. Construction is slated for next year.

  Also included in the plans are a walking trail, creek habitat work and improvements to an adjacent public parking lot that’s currently dedicated to construction on the historic City Hall.

• Atascadero’s ideal downtown

  Atascadero’s ideal downtown

  In Atascadero’s ideal downtown, key gathering places and businesses are linked by pedestrian-friendly pathways. Such a vision is laid out in its downtown revitalization master plan adopted about a decade ago.

  While many of the plan’s ideas are still conceptual, a pedestrian footbridge project over Atascadero Creek could be complete in a year. The project also features a plaza, walking trail and creek restoration.

  Renderings of the approximately $1.6 million bridge and plaza project, now in the design phase, show people strolling between downtown’s Sunken Gardens and the new Colony Square. The footbridge will stretch from East Mall over the creek and into the shopping plaza.

• New theater still needs some work

  New theater still needs some work

  Last May, I wrote about how much I liked the vivid colors applied to the retail buildings that surround the new Galaxy Theatres in Colony Square. It was my opinion that those colors, and the ones used across Highway 41 in the new Starbucks project, actually enhanced the beautification effort under way downtown.

  Many people I talk to like the new colors but don’t have good feelings about the theater complex itself. They say it is too big, rather garish and not in keeping with what is going on downtown.

  I’ve been trying to put my finger on what’s wrong with the new movie house. It does stand out instead of blend in. Maybe that was the plan.

• Original high school building’s end is near

  Original high school building’s end is near

  Although students at Atascadero High School know it as Building B, for many in the community it is the last of the original Margarita Black Union High School built on a bluff overlooking the downtown civic center.

  Work began on the original high school building designed by Colony Architect John Roth in 1920, but it wasn’t until May 1921 that Atascadero Masonic Lodge No. 493 conducted the laying of the cornerstone. Mabel Lewis, wife of founder E.G. Lewis, was handed the ceremonial trowel to set the cornerstone. A time capsule is placed very near that cornerstone.

  Now, after close to 90 years of service, the building is scheduled to be torn down to make room for new campus facilities.

• Ruling halts SLO County improvement projects

  Ruling halts SLO County improvement projects

  Atascadero alone has $10 million in redevelopment money tied to work