Victorville officials announced on Apr. 13 new steps in their ongoing effort to restore Old Town, including reducing lanes on 7th Street and installing a roundabout at Forest Avenue near the city’s Veterans Memorial.
The city aims to make Old Town more accessible and attractive for shoppers and pedestrians by slowing traffic, improving walkability, and enhancing public spaces. Sue Jones, Victorville’s public information officer, said the changes are intended to “change the entire look and feel of Old Town and make it a shopping destination.” She added, “We’re trying to make it a more walkable area, a place that’s more friendly to pedestrians. The way it is now people can’t walk it very easily. Traffic moves through there pretty quickly, so we’re trying to slow it down.”
For years Victorville has tried to revive its 250-acre business district bordered by Interstate 15, Oro Grande Wash, Highway 18, Mojave Drive and Verde Street. While ideas like reducing lanes have been discussed previously, they were only recently included in official design plans according to Jones.
No construction schedule or funding sources have been announced yet as committees from various departments continue studying improvements such as increased police presence and trash pickups. “We’re still in the design phase,” Jones said. “There are a lot of plans in the works.”
Additional initiatives discussed at an April 9 event include forgivable loans up to $100,000 for eligible businesses along key streets for exterior improvements; $10,000 grants for upgrades like painting or security; increased sidewalk cleaning; quarterly riverbed cleanups; free junk removal services—removing nearly twelve tons of debris last summer—and efforts to attract developers for mixed-use sites owned by the city.
The city has also worked on addressing homelessness with the opening of Victorville Wellness Center three years ago which has helped reduce unsheltered homelessness by fifty-seven percent since then according to Jones: “There’s no question that a large homeless population is an impediment to restoring Old Town… Getting the unsheltered population down that much shows we’re making progress but we still have a lot of work to do.” Brendan O’Brien from California Route 66 Museum agreed: “It’s been a 180-degree change since then… I think they’ve done a great job improving conditions in that part of the city.” He called reviving Old Town “critical” for Victorville’s economic future.
Jones acknowledged challenges remain—especially with funding—as state support has dwindled: “Funding is the one thing that really holds us back… We have to be creative and find other (revenue) sources.”
