BY CYNDY BEAL
Whether you like plans for Wheat Ridge’s Main Street depends on whether you like diets – Road Diets, to be exact.
Studies, committees, plans and meetings for the future of 38th Avenue has proceeded in fits and starts for over a decade, and the public got its chance to see and comment earlier this month.
The city of Wheat Ridge hosted two open houses for the 38th Avenue Roadway Design at the Wheat Ridge Recreation Center on the morning and early evening of Jan. 5. Road draft plans were displayed showing the “Road Diet” plan – restriping and narrowing of 38th Avenue – between Depew and Upham streets.
At the Open House, a paper draft spanning several feet hung on the wall.
Wheat Ridge Projects Supervisor Mark Westberg explained the many benefits of the Road Diet model. The plan takes the avenue down to three lanes, two for direct traffic, and one for a center turning lane.
Some businesses and residents were not in favor. Concerns about the impact on businesses, emergency vehicles access and possible increases in emissions were raised.
Jim Meeker, owner of Meeker Auto Sales on 38th Avenue, points to Tennyson Street and disagrees with Westberg’s claim that slowing down speeds on a road allows people to see more businesses, thus improving revenue streams for business owners and the city through increased sales taxes.
“When I drive down Tennyson Street I’m paying attention to cars pulling out and car doors opening and not looking at businesses,” said Meeker.
Westberg later said, as a passenger, he sees more businesses and has better views of the street in general at lower speeds. In addition, he said Tennyson has two lanes and no center turning lane, and isn’t an accurate comparison.
According to the 38th Avenue Corridor Study Road Diet Traffic Analysis, “Alternatives 1 and 3 [the present corridor plan] have the least impact to travel time with both options causing only 40 seconds or less of added delay in the corridor.”
The narrowing could add close to a minute at the most, at peak-hours, of drive time on the over a mile-and-a-half stretch. Westberg said they didn’t expect diversion traffic on 44th Avenue or 32nd Street as a result of the fewer lanes. He said construction, in front of individual business sites, would take a couple of days, with work most likely being performed at night.
The estimated cost for the one-year trial of the plan – temporary structures, sandblasting and restriping of 38th Avenue – is $250,000. Permanent structures are an additional $250,000. It would be paid out of Wheat Ridge’s 2012 general fund ($26,887,109, out of the total $40,210,340 budget).
Opinions vary on the Road Diet Plan; but many business owners are in favor of the 38th Avenue Plan.
“38th Avenue has been stagnant for over 30 years,” comments Wheat Ridge Lanes owner Dave Hanscom, “Change is a hard pill to swallow, but economically we need to move forward for the good of our community.” The family-owned enterprise on 38th Avenue has been in business for over 50 years.
“It’s just going to make everything better,” states Robin McCourt, owner of Ornamental Beads, also on 38th Avenue. McCourt said she would love to see traffic slow down, and currently road speeds are too fast.
Opposition could be a question of timing, with the downturn of the economy and some businesses struggling to keep a float.
“I just don’t buy it that it’s the key to economic recovery,” said Mikes Stites, Council Member from District III and owner of B&F Tire on 38th Avenue.
Other parts of the plan include temporary amenity zones (sidewalk extension), back-in-angle parking and streetscaping, such as planting containers. The long-range plans in the next three to five years call for bicycle lanes, which is part of the city’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, adopted in 2010.
In February or March, the city starts the bidding process for this phase of the 38th Avenue Corridor Plan. Contractor bids will go to council for approval, after bids are collected, six weeks or so. If approved by council, construction is slated to start in spring or early summer, with the goal to finish before the Carnation Festival in August.
The city’s 38th Avenue Corridor plan states, “A road diet is anticipated to bring many benefits to the corridor,” including an attractive, pedestrian-friendly environment, reduced traffic speeds resulting in safety, economic benefits, including the attraction of new businesses.”
The benefits are from case studies of other communities’ experience with Road Diets, published in “Road Diet Handbook: Setting Trends for Livable Streets.”
With a fire station on Upham Street in between 38th and 44th avenues and Lutheran Hospital to the west of Wadsworth (not part of the plan) emergency vehicles are daily sights on 38th Avenue.
“We are overall in support of the plan,” said Fire Chief Steven Gillespie, “but we have concerns about anything that delays our time. At this point it’s all theoretical.”
Possible increased emissions haven’t been studied.
“Nobody has brought it up,” said Wheat Ridge planner Sarah Showalter, adding that the increase, if any, is small enough that it’s not a concern. Average daily traffic for 38th Avenue ranges from 16,000 to 18,000 vehicles a day. Small communities and cities don’t typically collect emission data, she added.
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has collection points for measuring emissions on higher-volume roadways, like Wadsworth, and throughout the Denver area. The collection sites change, and are project dependent.
In 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated rules for determining which transportation projects are analyzed for local air quality, according to CDOT website (www.coloradodot.info).
Some projects are considered exempt. Overall the EPA is more concerned about large-scale transportation projects. CDOT is involved in these larger-scale projects, such as light-rail stations, where there are increases in diesel vehicle traffic, like busses.
Over the last 20 years there have been many changes to 38th Avenue, with the widening of the street in the 1980s to present. In 2001, Wheat Ridge City Council named 38th Avenue as its main street.
The city created its first comprehensive land use plan in 2000. The current amended plan, Envision Wheat Ridge, was adopted in the fall of 2009. Aside from development, it addresses three redevelopment areas: Wadsworth Corridor and Town Center, Kipling Corridor and 38th Avenue “Main Street”. The 38th Avenue Corridor Plan, with the narrowing of the avenue being a major component, was adopted by city council in October 2011. The first phase of the project is complete (with some items being ongoing). The fourth and final phase finishes in 2030.
Wheat Ridge 2020, non-profit, is a partner with the city for the 38th Avenue Corridor Plan, and has action items and responsibilities within the plan.
One responsibility is the formation of a Leadership Committee, as part of Phase 1, through Wheat Ridge 2020. Their first meeting had 25 people in attendance.
To view the Wheat Ridge 38th Avenue Plan, go towww.ci.wheatridge.co.us/index.aspx?nid=981 and click on 38th Avenue Corridor Plan.
2001: City Council makes 38th Avenue its Main Street
2005: Repositioning Wheat Ridge, Revitalization Strategy
2009: DCI recommendations including Road Diet
2009: Updated city comprehensive plan, “Envision Wheat Ridge”
2010: Public meetings about rezoning for mixed use on 38th Avenue
June 2011: Entelechy Design, the prime consultant for the 38th Avenue Corridor Study, reviews a dozen existing plans and numerous policies that the city had drafted and commissioned over the past decade expressing the city’s desire to redevelop the 38th Avenue Corridor
October 2011: city approves present 38th Avenue Corridor Plan
January 2012: Open House
At the end of 2009, Downtown Colorado, Inc. (DCI) came into the picture as a consultant with recommendations for the revitalization of Wheat Ridge. DCI is a nonprofit membership organization “committed to building better communities by providing assistance to Colorado downtowns, commercial districts and town centers,” according to its web site, www.downtowncoloradoinc.org.