PLATTSBURGH — The City of Plattsburgh is applying for a $396,600 state grant to help restripe Broad Street for the purpose of adding bicycle lanes and better crossing infrastructure.
In order to accommodate the new biking infrastructure proposed in the new restriping plan, which is being called the Broad Street Road Diet Project, some areas will see an elimination of on-street parking and a reduction in the number of vehicle lanes on the northern side.
The total expected cost of the project is $495,750.
If awarded the grant, which is being requested through the New York State Climate Smart Communities Grant Program and has a July 31 deadline to apply, the city will have to put up $99,150 out of the general fund to pay for the rest.
PROJECT DETAILS
According to the contract drawings for the Broad Street traffic study and roadway improvements, the proposed project would add bike lanes on Broad Street from the Oak Street intersection past the Rugar Street intersection and up to the Beekman Street intersection.
City senior planner Elisha Bartlett said during the Common Council’s last work session meeting that lane widths will be reduced to allow for the addition of bike lanes on either side “where possible.”
Additionally, the plans show an elimination of parking on the northern side of Broad Street from the corner of North Catherine Street to at least where Lorrie Mandigo Art Studio & Gallery is located. Other businesses along that stretch include Wilson’s Appliance Scratch and Dent Store; and Karen’s Cuts.
“(That is) to allow the bike lanes and travel lanes to coexist,” Bartlett said.
“The intent is to keep the same traffic pattern throughout so we don’t have to get into changing signals or make it an astronomically expensive project.”
Councilor Jacob Avery (D-Ward 2) asked if the parking changes would affect property owners in that area who may only have on-street parking.
Bartlett said they looked at the parking along Broad Street and determined all but one parcel has off-street parking.
She said they also went door-to-door on the eastern end of Broad Street, where many businesses are, to see what demands they might have in regard to the project. Brown Funeral Home was among those “most concerned” about on-street parking being reduced.
“The initial proposal was to take away parking on the north side across from the funeral home, but we revisited it and decided that it was best to keep it there and we can keep it there while still having bike lanes on the side.”
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Mayor Chris Rosenquest said the city has worked closely with a number of community stakeholders on the project, including the Plattsburgh City School District, SUNY Plattsburgh president’s office, SUNY Plattsburgh University Police, the Climate Smart Task Force and Clinton County Health Department.
“We’ve gone back and forth with stakeholders to confirm that our thinking is shared with them and it’s not an interruption but rather an enhancement to the overall livability and accessibility of our roadways,” Rosenquest said.
“These are folks who have been aware of this project and will be submitting letters of support along with this application.”
The impact on Stafford Middle School was a major factor in the project plans.
In an email exchange with Councilor Elizabeth Gibbs (D-Ward 3), Rosenquest said a number of scenarios were discussed for the section in front of the middle school and what impact each may have.
“What we ultimately settled on was retaining the two eastbound travel lanes and reducing the westbound travel lane from two lanes to one,” Rosenquest wrote last week.
“We’re scheduled to meet with him (Plattsburgh City School District Superintendent Jay Lebrun) again next week to further discuss the changes and foreseeable impact on the school pick-up/drop-off situation. We don’t foresee a major impact to this considering there are no changes to the eastbound travel lanes feeding the school.”
Following their meeting, Lebrun said the plans should not disrupt pick up and drop off areas for Stafford Middle School, which was a concern.
“We don’t see it having a particular impact on us so we are at ease with it,” Lebrun said.
REASONING
Bartlett said the overall intent of the project is to hopefully “bring down the number of traffic incidents.”
“As you all might recall, there was a student that was hit and hospitalized and taken out of classes for quite some time about a year ago. There were also City of Plattsburgh elementary students, who, crossing Broad Street, had near-hit incidents … and just a number of other collisions along Broad Street and road rage,” she said.
“So the intent is to really … bring it back into an easier road to travel, a safer road to travel and make it more inviting and safer for all travel.”
COUNCIL VOTE
Councilors gave the go ahead to apply for the state funding for the project at their last meeting on July 18 with a 4-2 vote. Councilors Avery and Jeff Moore (D-Ward 6) voted against it.
Moore, in his reasoning, said before the vote that he doesn’t think the street needs any new modifications other than general restriping.
“I think that’s the only problem with it,” he said.
“That’s a major street going east-west in the city. I don’t think it needs anything other than restriping. I do not think we need to make the lanes smaller, get rid of lanes … I do not see any reason to change the configuration.”
Avery told the Press-Republican last week his decision to vote no on the project was based on the lack of information the council was given about it heading into the meeting.
“I asked the mayor’s office if there was a feasibility study (done). Broad Street is one of the busiest streets, if not the busiest. There needs to be some kind of feasibility study telling me that this is going to be the right course of action,” he said.
“The second piece is there was no way to visualize it. There was nothing written up that I could find in the packet. So those are the two reasons that I was hoping there would be answers for at the council meeting … I was actually surprised by the final vote.”
‘SHOULDN’T HAVE PASSED’
Based on the lack of details given to councilors, Avery clarified he wasn’t expecting the funding application to be approved.
“I thought it was obvious it shouldn’t have passed,” he said.
“I know some of the councilors were happy to support it, at least, in the meeting. I couldn’t understand that; I had a hard time understanding that.”
Councilor Gibbs, who voted yes to the resolution, said she supported it because she wants to see the city become more bikeable — a long sought after initiative by the city’s Climate Smart Task Force as well, which Gibbs served as a liaison to in the past.
However, she said she was not aware that actual renderings of the project were available to view because they were not provided to the council at the time of the meeting. Gibbs said she believed the plans would be discussed and put together at a later date if the city was eventually approved for the funding.
“It’s a situation of: you don’t know, what you don’t know … I made a decision with the information that I had.”
When she was made aware there were renderings available, she reached out to the mayor for them and other information.
“I didn’t know this document existed,” she said.
“That is really on the mayor’s office. That’s not our fault as councilors. I support a better road diet. I support bikeability. I want to see more quality of life improvements in the city, but if there’s information that was not shared appropriately, that is completely on the mayor’s office.
“It would appear to me that he moved forward on the resolution before he got the buy-in from the district, the businesses …there needed to be more community collaboration, which I did not know about. I took the city offices at their word.”
Gibbs suggested a potential re-vote for the council’s next meeting Aug. 1 but with the funding application due July 31, she learned that wouldn’t work. She is instead hoping for a detailed presentation on the plans to be shared with the public during that meeting.
“It would give the opportunity for the public to come in and see for themselves and ask questions directly.”
NEW ADMINISTRATION
With just five months left in Mayor Rosenquests’ tenure as well, Gibbs acknowledged the implementation of the project, if the funding is awarded, is not exactly guaranteed.
She said the project could fall on the shoulders of a new mayoral administration — either under Republican Don Kasprzak or Democrat Wendell Hughes — that may not want the project.
“If a future administration doesn’t have any plan to support this project, and … we’re awarded the grant, and we reject it, that’s a black eye for us.”