At the April 2nd Franklin Common Council Meeting, city engineer John Bennett reported that he'd been directed by the council - - a mere week earlier - - to negotiate an engineering contract for reconstruction of the stretch of Drexel Avenue between Loomis and Hwy. 100; i.e. right in front of the planned Shoppes at Wyndham Village development currently under discussion. Bennett recommended awarding the contract to McClure Engineering.
It should be noted that McClure is also employed by "Shoppes" developer Mark Carstensen."This is a city project, and should be a city project," Bennett said. "We've had developers build roads that they turned over to the city, they were on farm fields; when they did it, they didn't have to deal with the public like we're gonna have to deal with the public. And I think this should be a contractor that answers to the city where we have at least some control." (More on that intriguing and loaded statement in a later post....).
“We have a price for doing it,” Bennett then said, adding that the city can leave open the idea of shared costs with the "Shoppes" development agreement.
The question is: How can "we have a price for doing it"? Is Drexel's configuration already decided, and it's already too late to make this road useful for moving people as well as vehicles?
Those of you who have been following the "Shoppes" project from the beginning may remember that developer Mark Carstensen requested that the property be re-zoned as CITY CIVIC CENTER. Without that re-zoning - - a change that irked some homeowners in the Carstensen-built subdivision across the street who felt information was kept from them before they bought into the subdivision - - the commercial "Shoppes" development would be impossible. He got the rezoning fairly easily after assuring the public that "Shoppes" would be a great asset to the area, carefully designed, etc.
Civic Center zoning allows for everything from government facilities (fire stations, etc.) to commercial buildings. It is meant to be pedestrian-friendly, "slightly more urban" than the surrounding suburb in terms of buildings allowed to be closer together, etc., but also tries to situate parking to the rear of buildings and away from where people would have to see it. Carstensen's current site plan does not seem to take those directives to heart and instead resembles any number of anonymous parking lot-dominated big box developments with smaller, seemingly unrelated buildings tossed on the other side of a sea of asphalt. An enormous amount of land consumed for very little payback.
Now there exists an opportunity to right a wrong on the stretch of W. Drexel that fronts the"Shoppes" location and connects it to, for example, the library, park, and some nicely populated neighborhoods. In addition to adding the roundabout seen in the "Shoppes" plan, now is the time to make the road useful to bikers and pedestrians as well as cars and solve some of the "Shoppes" parking ills at the same time.
How? Modify this stretch of Drexel to include an on-street parking lane - - on one or both sides - - which separates the road from a bike and pedestrian lane. The on-street parking will:
- relieve some of Carstensen's parking requirements at "Shoppes" (and lower his open asphalt square footage)
- provide a protective screen and sense of security for bikers and pedestrians
- lower vehicle-count on the road once local people can walk or bike to useful destinations
- provide safe access to useful services civic amenities to local residents without cars - - the elderly, pre-teens, etc.
- keep young drivers out of cars when they need access to useful services and civic amenities (in their first year of driving, over 40% of teenagers have an accident serious enough to be reported to the police)
- slow down thru traffic with the proven traffic-calming effect of enclosure created by the parked vehicles.
Is the city serious about enforcing the City Civic Center zoning requirements now that Carstensen has been granted the re-zoning he wanted? Then this is an ideal situation for sharing costs between Carstensen and the city: For its money, "Shoppes" gets a break on parking spaces required in the property as well as greater foot traffic (to attract desirable tenants); the city gets a far more vibrant and useful section of Drexel that will surely attract additional positive development; nearby neighborhoods get foot access to "Shoppes"; civic amenities like the library and park are suddenly connected to "Shoppes," etc.
The bottom line is this: This is city money, and city money cannot continue to be spent exclusively on vehicle-only connections between city services and amenities that do nothing more than add volume and danger to already overloaded collector roads like Drexel. A road in an area zoned as City Civic Center should not be treated as a "traffic sewer." It should be a means to move people - - vehicle or not - - in an efficient and pleasing manner while creating a relationship between people, the places they live, and the places they use regularly.
If there's someone out there who disagrees with that, I really wish you'd let me in on your reasoning.
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