The city of Des Moines and stakeholders from the Ingersoll Avenue corridor hope to have a design ready next spring for a long-awaited project to improve aesthetics in the area.

Last month, representatives from the city and the Ingersoll Area Association, a group composed of business owners, property owners and neighborhood associations in the Ingersoll area, met with consultants from Chicago-based Douglas Hoerr Landscape Architecture Inc. to begin work on a streetscape project between 28th and 31st streets on Ingersoll. In late October, the Des Moines City Council hired the landscape architecture company for $238,655 to provide land surveys, design and fund-raising services for the project. The company has previously worked in Des Moines on beautification projects along Fleur Drive, in the East Village and near the Ruan Center, according to Jason Van Essen, a senior city planner for the city of Des Moines.

Van Essen said the Douglas Hoerr team will meet this month with business and property owners along the project area to share preliminary ideas and gather feedback and concerns. The consultants will take that input into consideration to create conceptual drawings. By mid-February, the designs should be ready to share with the public.

Once the design is ready, the Ingersoll Area Association, will “go into fund-raising mode” with the consultant, Van Essen said, to raise private donations and secure grants to match or exceed the city’s contribution of $500,000. The fund-raising phase of the project is expected to wrap up by May 31, 2006, at which time, a final budget will be set and construction documents will be drafted. If everything goes as planned, construction will begin in the spring of 2007 and be completed later that year.

“Our goal is to begin in 2007, but a lot has to happen quickly for us to meet that goal,” Van Essen said.

Members of the Ingersoll Area Association have grown accustomed to waiting. The group started working with Councilwoman Christine Hensley in 2001 to raise money for improvements to the area and challenge the city to put resources toward the development of a comprehensive plan for the entire corridor. RDG Planning & Design finished the plan last year, and it is being used as a general guide for development.

“There’s a lot of neat things happening in this little area where we’re doing the pilot project,” Van Essen said. “With a couple of newer establishments, The Mansion and Star Bar, there’s new excitement in this area, and we’re trying to build off that.”