For people who walk, drive or ride a bicycle, a variety of possible scenarios could change how they get around in a portion of Helena’s downtown.
Consultants hired by the Environmental Protection Agency through its Greening America’s Capitals program, unveiled options for a five-point intersection downtown, along with how the Last Chance Gulch and Sixth Avenue intersection could be reshaped to provide a better transition to the city’s Downtown Walking Mall.
Other of the visions for changing Last Chance Gulch involved possible reconfigurations for traffic, pedestrians and those on bicycles for Last Chance Gulch from Sixth to Neill avenues, Fuller Avenue from Sixth to Neill avenues, Last Chance Gulch from Neill to Lyndale avenues and along Neill from Kessler to Front streets.
The focal point of this process is Last Chance Gulch and how to make it more pedestrian friendly as it transitions from new economic development to where it enters the walking mall and the city’s historic past.
“This is kind of an exciting project for us,” Sharon Haugen, the city’s community development director, said as the first of three days of considering possibilities began on Monday.
The process isn’t to determine what the city will do but rather what it could do to make the downtown more desirable, more usable by pedestrians, she added.
Some of the designs used landscaping to separate traffic on streets and to provide a lane for those making left turns. Landscaping along street curbs and in areas set aside for parking, sidewalks and bicycle lanes were included in designs as well as in larger open space that was intended to help divert rain from the city’s storm sewers.
Using landscaping for this purpose, said Kevin Perry with Urban Rain Design in Portland, Ore., helps reduce the amount of oils, greases and other pollutants that are carried by water running along streets en route to storm sewers. This tainted water presents concerns for those downstream of where the storm water drains.
The proposals advanced as starting points for a community discussion on reshaping city streets were all feasible given the city’s rights-of-way, Hall said.
In most cities, a quarter of the land is devoted to street rights-of-way, so a question for those who manage cities is how to take advantage of that land so it serves multiple functions, said Phil Erickson, a principal with Community Design + Architecture of Oakland, Calif., who is leading the design team.
Looking at serving multiple interests in street design, Erickson said, can be a consideration by agencies when asked to help fund street projects.
The nearly hour-long explanation of possibilities for reshaping how streets are used drew questions from those who owned businesses along the affected areas. Their questions focused primarily on why to expand sidewalk widths, how to ensure that business locations are not left “landlocked” and whether the designs put forward for discussion will allow for handling the winter’s snows. Among other comments offered to the design team was that the area being reviewed for improvement was too limited and a broader look at the city was warranted.
More meetings will be held today with stakeholder groups such as those representing business interests, transportation and historic preservation; and another public meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Civic Center, 340 Neill Ave., where the public input process will conclude.
Based on what information is gathered during the session, a final report on what changes the city could make to its streets would likely be completed by early June, according to Abby Hall, a policy analyst with EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities.
Some of the ideas in the report could be initiated in the six months to a year after the report is released, Hall added. Other of the suggested improvements could require further study to determine if they are practical.
Funding for future projects, should the city decide to pursue them, would have to be sought, city staff has said.
Helena is one of five state capitals selected this year by the EPA for the program, Hall said, adding that the city’s application that sought to improve transportation while also better connecting its new economic growth with its historic past helped it be selected. The EPA has said that it does not make public what it is spending for this project.
Hall said that she walked the downtown and said the pedestrian mall with its historic character is vibrant with people there for lunch and others walking through the mall too.
She also viewed the five-pointed intersection, dubbed locally as “mini-malfunction junction” as there is another intersection with more traffic that has the distinction of being the city’s larger “malfunction junction.”
The intersection, she said, has a disconnect for the traffic that uses it.
Despite the confusion that the intersection can cause those who are just passing through town and even for people who live in Helena, there was only limited support for one of the two suggested revisions for it.
And others at the meeting wanted the intersection left alone and said that installing a roundabout in place of the stoplights that are there now would create “an accident waiting to happen.”
Erickson, who led the design team, said more engineering and analysis would be necessary before the city could decide whether to proceed with a roundabout.
Design team members said modifications to the five-pointed intersection could be removed from the scope of work too, based on public comment.
Members of the Helena City Commission and City Manager Ron Alles arrived before the meeting started to hear the presentation as they would be holding one of the twice monthly meetings later that evening.
Improving mobility and safety while adding landscaping and trees along streets, Erickson told the commissioners, can add 3 percent to 15 percent to home values. Retail spending, he noted, can benefit by between 9 percent and 12 percent as people tend to linger longer in these pedestrian friendly environments.
“There’s some challenges, but I think there’s a lot of opportunities to do some great things,” Erickson said before the meeting began.
The challenges posed by the five-point intersection, he continued, were large.
“It’s one of those places where the community really needs to think about the trade-offs of any decisions,” Erickson added.
Two proposals that were advanced for discussion at the meeting dealt with the intersection of Sixth Avenue and Last Chance Gulch where the walking mall starts. One scenario called for expanding the curbs at this three-point intersection so people would have less distance to cross and to slow traffic for pedestrian safety.
The second scenario called for expanding the walking mall into the intersection so the space – clearly defined by color and style of the pavement – would provide for a mixed use by those who are walking and in vehicles.
In discussing why Helena’s application was selected in 2012, the third year for the Greening America’s Capitals program, the EPA website noted that redevelopment in the northern part of Last Chance Gulch has added new office buildings, a new bank and both commercial and residential office buildings. As this redevelopment continues toward downtown, Greening America’s Capitals will help the city and community create a common vision that makes the streets and intersections friendlier to those who are walking or riding bicycles while still maintaining the neighborhood’s functionality for all users.
Greening America’s Capitals is a project of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities between the EPA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Transportation, the EPA website noted. A goal of this program is to help state capitals develop a vision of distinctive, environmentally friendly neighborhoods that incorporate building concepts and infrastructure that is more environmentally sensitive. Green building concepts seek to create healthier and more resource-efficient models of construction, renovation, operation and maintenance while green infrastructure designs offer a new look at managing rainwater such as directing it into landscaping instead of sewer pipes which also offers new options for other stormwater and floodwater management.
Also selected along with Helena are Des Moines, Iowa; Frankfort, Ky.; Baton Rouge, La.; and Indianapolis.
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