Since early October, Douglas Avenue between 62nd Street and 72nd Street has carried three lanes instead of four. Painted blue curb extensions now sit at the corners. According to the city's own counts, most points along this stretch carried about a quarter fewer cars per day in September 2024 than in 2016. Urbandale's downtown plan is now giving the extra pavement to on-street parking, pedestrian crossings and future plazas, and the city projects that drivers will lose less than a minute.
What Changed Between 62nd and 72nd
The work is City of Urbandale Project 2026-017, called "Douglas Avenue Three-Lane Pavement Markings." The city bid it at an estimated $55,000, set a July 29, 2026 letting date, and set a completion date of October 7, 2026. The construction plans set the project limits as Douglas Avenue from 72nd Street to 62nd Street. WOI reported that the lane reduction would begin on a Tuesday night as the first step in a larger downtown effort.
The work is all paint, with no new concrete. The project bid and construction plans call for:
- About 4,900 square feet of painted curb extensions in reflective blue
- About 38 painted symbols and legends
- Crosswalk markings and perpendicular parking markings in the plan set
The city's Downtown Urbandale Master Plan, dated June 17, 2025, describes the target layout as two travel lanes, one turning lane and on-street parking.
The Fourth Lane Was Carrying 2016's Traffic
The master plan includes two sets of daily traffic counts taken at points along this stretch of Douglas. The older set comes from the Iowa DOT in 2016. The newer set was collected in September 2024 for the planning work.
| Count | Lowest point on the corridor | Highest point on the corridor |
|---|---|---|
| 2016, Iowa DOT | 16,800 vehicles per day | 18,300 vehicles per day |
| September 2024, city planning count | 12,680 vehicles per day | 14,911 vehicles per day |
At most of the counted points, daily volume fell from about 16,800 in 2016 to about 12,700 to 12,900 in September 2024. That's roughly a quarter fewer cars on the same four lanes. The road kept its size while the traffic shrank.
The plan also looks ahead. It modeled traffic for 2045, assuming full redevelopment along the corridor with about 1,000 new housing units. Even then, it found 30 to 60 seconds of added delay, on average, for a driver going through downtown. The plan also says the three-lane layout will not affect people who are driving to Douglas Avenue or starting a trip there.
So the city's planners put the cost to drivers at under a minute, two decades out, with far more people living downtown than today. That figure is the city's projection. No measured results from the new layout have been published yet.
What the Lane Is Being Traded For
If drivers lose so little, the space has to be going somewhere. The master plan states that goal outright: put pedestrian space and safety ahead of moving cars quickly. It argues that a downtown where people don't feel safe walking cannot support a strong business district or attract mixed-use development.
City leaders described downtown in similar terms. Aaron DeJong, Urbandale's economic development director, told WOI what the community is asking for:
"The community wants to see that this is a place where you meet with your friends for coffee, where you go have a dinner out with your spouse."
The plan names two places where the reclaimed space is meant to show up first.
- The Little Node at 67th Street. The plan would close off the ends of 67th Street where it meets Douglas and turn them into plazas, with mixed-use buildings around them offering ground-floor restaurants and housing above.
- The Big Node near 70th Street. This block is the plan's first priority for redevelopment. New public space would sit inside the block, with businesses and homes facing both that interior space and the surrounding streets.
The plan also commits the city to rebuilding Douglas Avenue, to stormwater fixes that take some of the burden off private developers, and to new rules that support walkable development and more density. The October paint job is the cheapest piece of that list, and it came first.
The Blocks That Already Draw People
All of this builds on a downtown that already has regulars. WOI described downtown Urbandale as home to longtime businesses and community gathering spots. Inside the restriped stretch:
- Stormy's at 6923 Douglas Ave. is listed by the Urbandale Chamber as a neighborhood bar with pool tournaments. A June 2026 review on Stormy's own site mentions its pool table and darts.
- Blockbuster Pizza appears in the same Chamber directory at 7003 Douglas Ave., near 70th Street, as a movie-themed pizza place. Call ahead to confirm current hours.
- IHOP at 6301 Douglas Ave., at Douglas and 64th Street near the east end of the stretch, lists daily hours of 6 a.m. to midnight.
The city has also started testing how downtown space could be used. Its Pop-Up Park and Block Party was set for Saturday, October 10, 2026, from 4 to 7 p.m. at 7031 Douglas Ave. The idea was to turn an empty parking lot into a gathering space with food trucks, a beer garden, a DJ and yard games. The city called it a first look at possible downtown uses. 7031 Douglas sits in the same block of addresses as Blockbuster Pizza, close to the 70th Street block the master plan ranks first for redevelopment.
What Hasn't Been Decided
The paint is down, and the plan says the full change will happen over many years. Four questions are still open:
- How the new layout performs. No traffic or safety results from the three-lane section have been published.
- Whether the street gets rebuilt. The master plan's action steps allow for restriping, reconstruction, or both. No date for reconstruction has been set.
- The zoning rules. At an August 12, 2026 open house, the city presented proposed downtown zoning changes that would allow mixed-use development and the reuse of existing buildings. The city said the open house did not approve any specific building or project.
- The plazas at 67th Street and the redevelopment near 70th Street. Both appear in the plan. Neither has a construction date.
Updates will come through City Council agendas and the city's Downtown Urbandale: From Plan to Progress page. Those are the places to watch for when the painted curb extensions on Douglas Avenue start becoming plazas and new buildings.
When a city starts reworking a downtown street, it helps to know what's actually planned nearby, whether it's a zoning change or a block marked for redevelopment. If you'd like help reading what's happening around Douglas Avenue, Andrew Bruellman and our team are happy to walk through it with you. Get Connected.
