The city of Phoenix Street Transportation Department unveiled a three-phase draft of downtown street improvements, stemming from nearly six months of work, at an open house Tuesday.
The transportation plans were displayed at the open house at the Arizona Commerce Authority building downtown. City transportation official and project manager Mark Melnychenko was present to answer questions from people who came to look at the drafts.
“This is a partnership with (Maricopa Association of Governments) and city of Phoenix in terms of funding,” Melnychenko said. “They had a large study and we took a subset of that study and said, ‘We’d like to do a refined study on downtown.’”
City committees, including the Planning Committee and Event Management Committee, began the process of designing streetscape changes last summer. Project staff then met with downtown stakeholders in September, speaking to neighborhood leaders and business owners.
The city first sought input from the public in November. The committees then met throughout the turn of the year to take public and stakeholder opinions and edit the streetscape changes.
What resulted from these meetings was a three-phase proposal, divided into five-year intervals. The proposal introduces several changes, including bike-lane additions in certain streets, changes from one- to two-way streets, and lane reductions in controversial roads.
The transportation department hopes to present completed plans to the city in April or May, Melnychenko said. However, despite the forward progress on the plans, Melnychenko says the biggest speed bump for the project is funding.
“It’s hard to say. We really need a strong funding base first,” Melnychenko said. “We’re working on a capital needs assessment with council to see where we can move ahead on some of these things. Funding is the big question.”
The first phase of streetscape design changes is set to take up to five years. This phase is largely focused on the increase of bike lanes downtown, including major bike lane extensions to reach Seventh Avenue on Washington and Jefferson streets.
Bike lanes across Third Street on sections of Buckeye to McDowell roads and Fifth Street from Jefferson to Fillmore streets are projected. Another major bike lane addition will be on Roosevelt Street from Central Avenue to Seventh Street.
This phase also hopes to create two-way traffic on some roads, including Third Street from Fillmore to Roosevelt streets and Lincoln to Washington streets. A proposed change on Fifth Street from Jefferson to Fillmore streets would add an extra northbound lane and a new southbound lane.
The second phase hopes to develop what it referred to as “downtown gateways.”
The second phase of the designs, which would run through the next five years, featured some major changes on Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street. In particular, the plan would decrease the amount of lanes on certain sections of those two roads from six to four lanes. It would also reduce the roads’ speed limit and potentially raise medians between the two directions of traffic.
“When people come to downtown from various directions, a lot of times (they) don’t know they’re coming into downtown,” Melnychenko said. “So there may be ways to give a sense of place.”
This would include reducing speed limits and adding signs or art, Melnychenko said.
The third and final phase of the plan is focused on long-term projects 10 years after the initial phase.
In this phase, the city hopes to create two-way traffic along most of Third and Fifth avenues downtown, as well as create a pedestrian, bicycle and transit mall on Central Avenue from Jefferson to Van Buren streets. First Street from Jefferson to Fillmore streets would be switched to just one-way traffic.
Possible light rail extensions were also presented during the open house. A light rail extension from Washington Street down to 79th Avenue is estimated to be completed in 2023. Another light rail extension hopes to extend the Central Avenue rail south to Baseline Road.
Will Novak, president of the Phoenix Historic Neighborhoods Coalition, said that while some of the changes are welcome, the idea to split the plan into three phases is “typical Phoenix of being so conservative and taking forever.”
“We could do this all within the year, most of it.” Novak said. “If we could just get the silliness of all of this out of the way we could just hurry up and get it done.”
“I’m just impatient,” he added. “I want downtown to be a bikeable, friendly place before I die.”
Novak said the open houses are an opportunity to gather opinions and advice from people who are interested in either streetscape design or the success of downtown Phoenix.
“Most of the folks here know what they’re talking about and are good people who have the right ideas,” Novak said. “They’re nerds who come out because they care, and they want to make the city a great place.”
Joel Carrasco, a planner for the city, attended the open house. He said he was happy for the first phase’s proposed extension of bike lanes on Washington and Jefferson streets.
“I really hope they can do that. It will benefit the biking community from the east because it’s a hard transition when the bike lane just stops in downtown,” said Carrasco, who bikes to work in the mornings heading west on Washington Street.
According to Melnychenko, the three-phase plan diagrams should be available online in the upcoming days.
The final open house session will be held Thursday, Feb. 27 at 11:30 a.m. in the Arizona Commerce Authority building’s first floor reception room.
Contact the reporter at miguel.otarolaalfaro@asu.edu.
