A community-driven approach to vibrancy and prosperity.
KINGS HIGHWAY COALITION PARTNERS
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Kings Highway Public Meeting Schedule
The public meetings have ended for 2024. More will be scheduled in the new year. To stay up to date, sign up for our email newsletter!
To view the latest design draft, scroll down below.
View the most recent draft design for Kings Highway.
Before you view the design, it is important to know that this is not a final design. There are still many steps to go between what you see here and what may be implemented in the next phase of the project (or might not!)
There are some ideas that may change due to budget constraints or laws governing engineering practices. Some ideas may require private property owners to give consent to the city or to make investments that have not committed to such changes. However, we feel it is important to share all of the ideas that have made it to this phase in their current state.
As of right now, these ideas and the draft design have been shared with the City of Shreveport and are undergoing feasibility review while we continue to receive input from community members, businesses, property owners, and institutions. We are also in conversation with public service providers and affected city departments such as SporTran. All of this work takes time to work through, but we are incredibly proud of the response that the city has had so far to the concept and are excited to continue to build a relationship of trust with the city as the project moves forward and ideas continue to evolve.
-Kings Highway Coalition, December 4, 2024
Why Should We Improve Kings Highway?
Throughout Shreveport's history (and perhaps long before), the Kings Highway corridor has played a vital role in commerce and the connection between neighbors, businesses, and key institutions in our city. Over the last 70 years, Kings has transformed from a wealth-producing street to a four—and sometimes five-lane speedway and home to two of Shreveport's most dangerous intersections. Residents, students, and customers have difficulty getting to and from home, school, and businesses safely. Every year, it seems Kings loses another building.
But all is not lost! Kings Highway has beautiful character, strong businesses, resilient institutions, and invested residents. Right now we have the opportunity to leverage local, state, and federal funding to bring Kings Highway into a new era. In the future, people will be able to move to and from their destinations safely, businesses will make more revenue, institutions of learning will be more connected, and our air and water will be cleaner. Now is the time to act!
The Goals of a Revitalization of Kings
Investing in Public Infrastructure Enhancements
We should improve roadways to travel safer for pedestrians, vehicles, mobility devices, bicyles, scooters, and public transportation. When people can move more freely and safely, they can visit their neighbors, participate more easily in the economy, and increase their quality of life. This connectivity is vital to a thriving neighborhood.
A Focus on Local Economic Development
Cultivating local business growth and attracting new investments is not only smart economics, it is key to long-term success in increasing quality of life for the residents. By investing in public infrastructure, we can make turning empty lots more viable and can prevent at-risk buildings and properties from slipping away.
Making Connection with Neighbors a Daily Reality
When we create spaces that foster community interaction and support local activities, we get to know each other better — a ciritcal component of broader community safety. It should be a trivial matter for a young member of the community to visit a friend’s house or ride their bike to school, and to meet with family and friends in the park.
Environmental Resilieance and Responsibility
For years, we have accepted that vehicle emissions and other environmental challenges are a fact of life. But we don’t have to. We can plant trees to clean the air, we can install rainwater retention to clean our water, and create natural habitats for animals that will help control pests while also addressing important climate pollutants.
How the Kings Highway Improvement Project started.
In January 2024, ReForm Shreveport made a post on social media about a long-lost 2001 plan to revitalize Kings Highway. That plan thought of many of the core tenets that ReForm Shreveport embraces today — walk-ability, safe traffic management, and connectivity between people, businesses, and public amenities. After making this post, the comments were flooded with interest — including some of the original members of the group that created that study and vision plan, the Kings Highway Corridor Association.
Some of the original members of KHCA and their successors gathered to discuss the idea of reviving the idea of a revitalized Kings Highway Corridor. There was unanimous interest, and an idea was born.
An image from the original 2001 Kings Highway Corridor study, which we shared to our social media pages.
A Movement Rooted in Public Awareness and Engagement
Before any work could begin on improvement, we need to reach as many residents, businesses, property owners, and institutions along the Kings Highway Corrdior, which so far includes the area from I-49 to Youree Drive. To do this, each and every business was called that abuts Kings. Those that did not answer were visited in-person and invited to join the conversation. Area neighborhood groups Gladstone Area Partnership and the Highland Neighborhood Association also engaged their residents.
With initial stakeholder outreach complete, an interest meeting was set in February 2024 to share some of the history of Kings Highway, an overview of the original 2001 plan as well as introducing the stakeholders in attendance to some of the new terminology and techniques that could potentially be implemented along the corridor to increase safety and create economic opportunity. Case studies of other communities in the South which had successfully implemented changes of their own were also discussed.
Neighborhood groups and institutions from the original 2001 proposal regroup for an interest meeting in January 2024.
A public meeting to discuss the possibility of ReForming Kings is held at Centenary College in February of 2024.
Engaging with City Departments and Public Officials
City and parish officials were also present at the January 2024 meeting and the February 2024 public meeting. After those public meetings, District B city councilman Gary Brooks facilitated a conversation with the city’s engineer, Robert Tomasek, to discuss the department’s interest in engaging with the public on the project. Another discussion was held with Caddo Parish officials to share the revitalizing Kings Highway concept and discern what support the parish could provide.
Outcome #1: The City of Shreveport Department of Engineering conducted a traffic feasibility study in April 2024. In August 2024, the Department of Engineering revealed that the road was capable of sustaining traffic levels with lane reconfiguration and committed to using existing repair funds to improve the section of Kings Highway from Holly Street to Centenary Blvd in the Spring of 2025—pending community input.
Outcome #2: Caddo Commissioners Young and Thomas, along with other members of the Caddo Commission, passed a resolution to commit the parish to Vision Zero, which is the goal of achieving zero pedestrian deaths in the community, a core goal of the Kings Highway ReForming Project.
Madison Poche speaks in support of the Caddo Commission’s Vision Zero resolution in April 2024.
The first public meeting was held to educate stakeholders and solicit design input for a revitalized Kings Highway corridor.
Formation of the Kings Highway Coalition
In Spring 2024, a group that would become known as the Kings Highway Coalition was formed from community organizations, neighborhood groups, and institutions that aim to gather community input on proposed infrastructure improvements, economic development opportunities, and enhancements to the quality of life in the area.
Coalition members included ReForm Shreveport, Centenary College of Louisiana, Highland Neighborhood Association, Gladstone Area Partnership, The Highland Center, and individuals with architecture experience, public engagement, and policy backgrounds. The coalition welcomes participation and free membership by any resident, business, property owner, or student who would benefit from joining the coalition.
Community members discuss ideas for the future of Kings Highway.
A Phased Approach
During the initial meeting with the city engineer’s office about the excitement around reimagining Kings, it was revealed that the city had already planned a resurfacing project from Holly St to Centenary Blvd. This project would replace the asphalt and re-paint the lines along this section of Kings Highway. However, the interest in rethinking Kings provided an opportunity to adapt that project from simple resurfacing to something more — a testbed for change that could be adopted for a future vision for a much more significant portion of Kings. Following the traffic study outcomes, which showed various changes could be supported without negatively impacting the number of cars that travel along Kings, the city committed to following community recommendations on a reimagined Kings Highway.
At this time, the coalition members broke the project into two phases. Phase One would consist of resurfacing the project area and working with the limitations of the scope of that project to test ideas and formalize a public engagement process. Phase Two would consist of a goal to re-imagine Kings Highway from Youree Drive to Samford Avenue to meet the existing plans for the Kings Highway Medical Corridor, which spans from Samford Avenue to Highway 171, currently under development. Phase One would begin implementation in the Spring of 2025 using existing city allocations for that section of Kings. Phase Two would chase state and federal support and funding for implementation in 2027 or 2028.
Public Meetings and Phase One Design Process
In September 2024, the Kings Highway Coalition held its first public meeting focused on soliciting input from the community, followed by smaller, open design meetings. During the larger public meeting, the coalition presented concepts around walkability, accessibility, preserving vehicle capacity, and creating a wealth-building place for people and businesses to prosper. Attendees of the first public meeting then participated in open discussions and small-group exercises to envision and write down the changes they would like to see in a revitalized Kings Highway. The conversation was not limited to Phase One constraints, but the outcomes would eventually be divided into what would fit the limitations of Phase One and what would be saved for a Phase Two project. Those recommendations can be found here:
With initial public guidance in hand, a design team of architects, engineers, and stakeholders met to create an implementation of those ideas. Through the design meetings, several visions for the corridor took shape, including ideas for public investment by the city and private improvements to connect businesses to a revitalized public space.
In October 2024, another public meeting was held to share the ideas the design team had developed and seek further feedback and input. At this meeting, the importance of private property improvements and connectivity to match the public investment was stressed as necessary to make the project effective. After this second meeting, the design team would meet again to incorporate the feedback from the second meeting. This design meeting also produced questions that would need to go back to the public for input, such as how to implement protected crosswalks, how to manage intersections, beautification options, and more.
The next meeting, to be held on November 16, 2024, will solicit one more round of public feedback before creating a final proposal to deliver to the city. It will also further explore the need for private investment and how that could be done with minimal financial investment.
A small group meeting where public feedback was incorporated into a design.
Early design sketches from the design team based on community input and design team member experience. This is not the final design.
What’s Next?
The large public and small, open design meetings will be held through November and early December.
Meeting Details:
Saturday, September 28th — COMPLETE. Watch the live stream replay. Read the public recommendations.
Saturday, October 26th — COMPLETE.
Saturday, November 16th, 10:00 a.m.-Noon at Centenary College’s Whited Room (2911 Centenary Blvd)
Topics to be discussed include:
Infrastructure Enhancements: Improving roadways, pedestrian walkways, and public transportation facilities.
Economic Development: Encouraging local business growth and attracting new investments.
Community Connectivity: Creating spaces that foster community interaction and support local activities.
Sustainability: Exploring environmental improvements such as tree cover to reduce heat, absorb vehicle emissions, methods for groundwater retention, and more.
The three meetings will produce ideas for two phases: 1) a short term improvement plan, aimed at low cost solutions for the area adjacent Centenary College from Holly St to Centenary Blvd with a target of implementation by spring of 2025 with local funds and 2) a long term plan with the goal of major improvements from Youree Drive to Line Avenue beginning in 2027 with the assistance of federal and state funding.
All are welcome, with a special invitation for those who are residents, businesses, institutions, organizations or property owners within the Kings Highway area.
