Wednesday, November 10, 2010

River Street sidewalk designs completed

Conceptual plan developed with public input


By TONY EVANS
Express Staff Writer

The Hailey Planning Department has completed preliminary sidewalk design plans that amount to a complete renovation of River Street. The department is hoping that a public input process used in creating the designs will be adopted by the City Council for approving sidewalk designs for other streets in the city.

"The reason for providing an opportunity for businesses and property owners to have input on the River Street preliminary design was to try to ensure that the design benefited those owners as well as the general public," Planning Director Beth Robrahn said.

The River Street project could take two years to complete and would depend on funding from a federal grant the city is applying for this fall. Sidewalks elsewhere in the city have been built with approval only from the Hailey Engineering Department.

"I know there is a lot of resistance to sidewalks in Old Hailey, but the fact is they are being built anyway," Jon Marvel told the Planning and Zoning Commission Monday, Nov. 1.

Marvel, a resident of Old Hailey with 100-year-old sidewalks beside his house, was a member of a citizen's advisory committee formed by Robrahn in 2008 to establish sidewalk and bike path standards for Hailey. The committee's input led to the formation of the Complete Streets Plan.

The P&Z is reviewing street standards in the Complete Streets Plan before they go to the City Council for approval.

Marvel presented photographs of sidewalks recently built on Second Avenue, Elm Street and elsewhere in Hailey, which he claimed were poorly designed and built in an "ad-hoc" manner.

The photographs showed sidewalks without "tree grates" for planting trees, others that were set on rolling curbs near the Hailey Elementary School and others on Second Avenue that he said had too narrow a planting strip.

"This (sidewalks designs) is not something that should be decided by city staff," said Marvel.

Though the city has no formal process to involve public input in street projects, the Planning Department is currently notifying property owners within 300 feet of street improvement projects that include sidewalks. One is under way on Woodside Boulevard.

Property owners are invited, with 15 days notice, to provide input on sidewalk designs in their neighborhood.

Robrahn said the public input component in the new standards would establish a public noticing procedure similar to the procedure followed for land-use applications, such as those for subdivisions and design review.

Tony Evans: tevans@mtexpress.com




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