Submitted by Kerry Kimbrough
On Saturday morning, October 15, around 120 citizens
concerned about Shoal Creek Boulevard met with city staff to sort out the issues and come up with options. Starting
with 10 different choices for the basic restriping plan, attendees broke into
small groups to hash out the pros and cons and to make their tweaks. After
group presentations and general discussion, attendees voted on a total of 23
different variations. The vote tallied each person’s top 5 choices. The result
is a short list of the design alternatives that found the most favor. (continue)
When the short list is officially published, it may contain
3-6 choices. But all of them are variations on two basic designs. One is the
city staff’s proposal (design #2). The other (design #3) is the same as what
exists today, minus the curb islands. Other top variants added double white
stripes between car lanes and bike lanes or shifted some space from car lanes
to bike/pedestrian lanes.
Perhaps the central controversy since 2000 has been
on-street parking. Will it be on both sides or one side only? In this meeting,
the few who spoke up for parking on both sides were more restrained.
Nevertheless, this issue continues to be pivotal. Design #2 proposes parking on
the east side only, but design #3 includes parking on both sides. Since voters
also identified what sort of stake they held, the results show how different
types of stakeholders voted. Those who identified themselves as residents on
SCB or in the surrounding neighborhoods preferred design #3 or variations
thereof. For those who identified
themselves as cyclists, the top choice was design #2 or one of its variations.
Overall, the design with the most votes was #2. Since
neighbors seem to have outnumbered non-resident cyclist representatives (based
on my quick eyeball count), it’s apparent that several neighbors ranked this
choice high. It’s certainly true that many neighbors enjoy cycling on SCB and
want it to be a better, safer experience. It may also be that the experience of
the dreaded curb islands has made some neighbors rethink where the space needs
to go.
So now what? The next step is the so-called “Official
Ballot”, in which all stakeholders will get a chance to vote on the short list
alternatives. You can expect to see these ballots delivered to your door or
your email inbox soon. Then the results of the Official Ballot will go back to
City Council as input for their final decision. The issue first returns to the
Council’s subcommittee on Land Use and Transportation for their recommendation.
Then, at a meeting of the full Council (current target is in December), the
final decision will be made.
The question of sidewalks for SCB was set aside as a
separate topic and was not directly addressed by the voting or the short list.
Nevertheless, people talked about sidewalks frequently and fervently. Within
the first 5 minutes of the meeting, hackles were raised when one neighbor
reminded Sondra Creighton (Directory of Public Works) that city staff has
promised sidewalks before but nothing came of it. Another neighbor pointed out that the AASHTO
guidelines that govern what city engineers will accept also call for sidewalks
on neighborhood collectors like SCB. Throughout the discussion, more than a few
people said “We need sidewalks, no matter what”. This line never failed to draw
a big round of applause.
City staff has definitely heard the message. Sondra
Creighton reiterated what she has already said in prior City Council meetings:
money for SCB sidewalks will be available in the FY 2006 budget. But she didn’t
say it’s a done deal, because she can’t. This expenditure will have to go
through the FY 2006 budget process along with everything else. After the
meeting, Creighton told me that the best case scenario would be that staff
starts up the design process next spring, has a design ready for bids in
August, and gets the go-ahead when the Council approves the budget in
October. If approved, construction could
begin soon afterward. The design process will be messy because it must address
sticky issues about exactly where concrete is poured. On the one hand,
Creighton’s staff had a good experience recently on
Regards,
Kerry
