Marina is finally dusting off its dream of making its downtown more vibrant and welcoming.

Between 2000 and 2010, on the heels of the closure of Fort Ord, Marina’s population dropped by 21 percent, bottoming out at 19,714 residents. During that same time, the city’s downtown, if one can call it that, flagged.

Concurrently, in 2001, Marina City Council decided that an attractive, pedestrian-friendly downtown was critical to the city’s long-term prospects. Meetings were held and committees were formed, which all culminated in a Downtown Vitalization Specific Plan in 2006.

At a Dec. 5 council meeting, as the hour was approaching midnight, the councilmembers stopped talking just long enough to allow two consultants who had come to the meeting from afar – one, a traffic engineer, and the other, a landscape architect – to give a presentation about a long-envisioned project that’s collected dust for more than a decade: revamping the commercial corridor of Del Monte Boulevard, which at one time was Highway 1, and it shows.

City Manager Layne Long told the council, “This project really is a transformational project in our city,” adding that it’s been talked about since 2005.

City Council will revisit the topic at its first meeting in February, Long says. As currently envisioned in the plan, on the southbound side heading toward Highway 1, the street would be narrowed from two lanes to one; on the northbound side, it would start to narrow after Palm Avenue.

In surveys conducted by the city’s consultants, residents wanted drought tolerant plants that would look good all year, but also add some color.

Pedestrian and sidewalk safety were also top priorities.