I’m currently at the City Council meeting. I will try to post as the meeting proceeds. I’m not always guaranteed a signal, even inside the Council Chambers, however, as it permits, I’ll post. Paul is also here taking photos. You can refresh this post to see the new additions by hitting your browser’s ‘refresh’ button or F5.
The Calhoun Street widening project will be the last item on the agenda
6:03 pm – Councilman Shoaff is getting ready to speak, however asked that citizens be allowed to address the Council. Councilman Marty Bender responded that there was not a public hearing scheduled. Councilman Shoaff responded, “No, we’ll put that aside for now.”
Councilman Shoaff is now addressing the Council stating the first vote by Council was to just turn the two-block stretch into two way within the existing curbwork.
6:11 pm – Councilman Shoaff is quoting from former City Arborists Bill Deatricks (spelling?) about the condition of the trees in the two block section. Honey Locust should have an urban life expectancy of 60-75 years.
6:15 pm – Councilman Shoaff talks about the wasteful aspects of the project, such as tearing out and discarding the granite around the top of the planters.
6:21 pm – Councilman Shoaff concludes
6:22 pm – John Urbahans begins the City’s presentation. He points out the the layout given to City Council and approved on June 20, 2006, is the same basic plan being brought before them tonight.
6:27 pm – John is pointing out that the June 20, 2006 included turn lanes, delivery lane and streetscape redesign. The road plan now being brought is 1′ narrower than June 20, 2006. They’ve had 5 public meetings/presentations. They did solicit designs from different firms. MKM provided a plan that would have cost over $2 million. The staff stepped back and looked at the project. They brought back this project at around $1 million. Since, they have met with several groups to present the new plan.
6:31 pm – Tom Cain, Senior City Planner, is going to talk about the trees. Primarily, the tree concerns are at the tops of the trees. There are several indicators that the trees have reached their growth potential. Current City Forrester, Chad Tinkel, concurs with Mudracks assessment of the trees.
6:37 pm – Back to John Urbahans, Community Development Executive Director, and Bob Kennedy, Board of Public Works Executive Director. New improvements include 45 trees, brick accent paving, historical lower-level lighting, closer to the ground, paver lights, two way traffic including turn lanes and deliver lane.
Includes 11′ SB lane, 10′ NB lane and 11′ loading/delivery zone. Pint and Slice side, end up with 13′ usable sidewalk and 10′ usable sidewalk on east side. They are actually taking 5.5′ off east side and 2.5′ off west side of the street.
6:42 pm – funded out of Council approved $30 million CEDIT bond, approved December, 2008.
6:43 pm – Councilman Tim Pape, when we voted on the resolution to approve the conversion in 2007. Council fully considered delivery lanes. Total cost may be as high as $1.5 million, per ordinance at the time. Council, rejected Wayne and Berry because of projected – $800,000. Â The cost at that time for Calhoun was only $700,000.
Councilman Pape goes on to talk about the letters included by the City in the pack. There are some very serious considerations. “We are not talking about 2 blocks….we’re talking about scores of blocks and [the] downtown.” He finished by saying, “Which is what we’re talking about tonight, not two blocks of Calhoun, but downtown.”
6:49 pm – Councilman John Shoaff – isn’t there a better way to spend $1 million? Talking about the charm of the stretch. There are alternatives to the project. It lacks, interest, charm…seems to be extraordinarily wasteful to spend the money, when we could bring other streets inthe area up to better standards.”
On to the trees – “Why is there such a difference of opinions?” They are mature in size, why should we worry about the growth when they are the canopy we want. It’s going to take some years for them to catch up to what’s there currently.
6:54 pm – Councilman Shoaff continues stating the West Central Neighborhood Association did vote in favor, however the entire Southwest Area Partnership voted against the next night. Â There was a petition at the Dash-In that garnered 250 signatures against the project. Wrong way to spend a million, better way to spend it to build on the success of the area already going. [Applause]
6:56 pm Councilwoman Karen Goldner speaks. Presentation given to City in June 2006, was implicitly three lanes with wider lanes, less sidewalks. “If you look at just the question of whether or not it’s a good way to spend a million, I’d probably have to say no. […] If you want more people come downtown, you have to make it easier for people to get around. We want to make our downtown more appealing to people who come downtown. Right now, it is intimidating.”
Calhoun Street is charming right now, but, what are we going to do now? I do believe the City’s plan takes into consideration aesthetics. Higher trees were initially planted to cover up vacant upper stories. Bike riding through downtown is troubling – need Calhoun Street. Making Calhoun two-way will make cycling more safe. “Let’s not confuse charming with perfect. We risk never making changes if we assume they will not work.”
7:04 pm – Councilwoman Goldner continues. Calhoun Street was two way during 1990. It did not work out. Reasonable concerns about liability, confusion, end up with more pedestrian conflicts. In the scheme of the public and private investment going on downtown, we need to make people feel more comfortable downtown. “I support the project.”
7:05 pm – Councilman Mitch Harper begins. He’s talking about sewer separation and underground utility work. This is not now included. When engineers looked at it, there was no benefit to doing the separation work. It was initially $300 to 400,000 projected originally.
7:08 pm – Only a couple of vehicles every cycle for turning (Shawn G.) Reason need turn lanes, not just for turn lanes, but for pedestrians.
7:11 pm – Councilman Harper is bringing up about the costs of bond issuance and interest balanced against other needs in the City. If there is dysfunction downtown, it’s the City’s own doing. Grand Wayne Center, Harrison Street closing… Botanical Gardens… they took away a lot that we’d like to have back today.
7:12 pm – Councilwoman Liz Brown. What happened to money in the other bond approved for this project? John Urbahans – Went into other downtown projects. The burden going forward will be on the parks department. Do they have the funding to take care of the new streetscape? Urbahans: Trees should be new, not need as much maintenance as older ones. They currently maintain planters.
7:15 pm – Ardmore is one of the more expensive projects. Two extremes – Ardmore and St. Joe Center Road projects. I think we need to balance the aesthetics. The Downtown Parking group wants to see this project go forward. The CVB has done a study of those who come to TinCaps games. 60-40 split – 60% inside Allen County, 40% from outside. It makes it inconvenient for people to come downtown, current traffic patterns that is.
7:20 pm – Councilman Glynn Hines. Want to make sure we take the global view. We’ve done a lot of planning. The end result of that planning has been positive. When we talked about it in 2006, we made a compromise. We decided on Calhoun Street change. In the long-term, we want to continue to bet on this pony – that Fort Wayne will continue to grown and be successful.
7:23 pm – Councilman Shoaff’s second, third opportunity to speak. A million dollars is a lot of money. Look at alternatives. It won’t be the same, be more like the other streets in the City. I think the thing we should be focusing on is making the other streets special. We should step back, hang on to our million dollars, and coordinate some other urban experience that people will want.
7:25 pm – Councilman Bender had 100 emails. Information was pretty much the same – we’re going to destroy the area and then sack the downtown. There was a lot of miscommunication. When the orignal ordinance was put out there, it talks about everything that they’re now asking for. There are other things that come to mind that would be better use of money, but…
7:28 pm – Passes out of Committee with “Do Pass” vote, 5-2. Councilman Harper and Shoaff against.
Related Images:
7:05 PM – This just occurred to me…. it seems that no one arguing against the “Calhoun Street Enhancements” both lives and works in the area. Or am I wrong?
Paul – I know of at least one person who owns a condo at Midtowne Crossing and real estate only blocks away, so I’m sure there are a few.
Douglas – If you read his comment again, it was a simple observation. Thanks for your comment.
Mr. Morrison, does that mean that I have to live or work downtown to have a voice in this discussion? I worked downtown for 20 years, my wife still does. I use the downtown regularly with visits to the Embassy, the Botanical Gardens, lunch at the Dash Inn. I do live within the city limits, and I do pay taxes….boy, do I pay taxes. I have registered my opposition to the Calhoun Street Enhancements because of the cost, the destruction of the best 2 blocks of downtown and the apparent arrogance from both the City staffers and City Council members themselves. Every person I ever spoke to about this project did their best to remind me that this was a “done deal”. It is apparent, from the preliminary vote, that the “fix” was indeed “in”, as council people who told me they would not support the issue then marched in lock-step to support it. It must be a shame when voters/taxpayers get in the way.
Right on Doug. My simple observation is that Fort Wayne is a “City of pawns”. Either that or “Fort Bully”. I still can’t make up my mind which is better…
I know of more than one person who lives in Midtown crossing and works downtown. I did so myself many years ago, and was there when Calhoun went from one way to two-way. Hated it! It really isn’t much, but exiting the garage on Wayne and driving to Clinton, just to get back to Washington and head toward the Aboite area was a pain… I adjusted.
Every opinion is appreciated. I was just looking for comment from someone with experience similar to mine.