Public Hearing Nets Citizens' Input on Changes to Downtown Streets and Pedestrian Crosswalks

A crowd of mostly business owners with locations in downtown, on or near the Square, attended the Public Hearing held Monday evening in the Old City Hall building. During this Public Hearing the city and contractor, Kimley-Horn presented proposed changes of making one-way streets Clayton and Perry to two-way directional streets. Also detailed were city plans to build a pedestrian crosswalk on Crogan Street. Redevelopment of streets and crosswalk will be funded, in part, by LCI (Livable Centers Initiative) Grant awarded to the city from the Atlanta Regional Commission, ARC.

“These plans have been in the works since 2006. And now we are moving to get them done,” said Councilwoman Marie Beiser.

“From a business owner’s perspective any changes will help, because right now traffic just zooms by and actually prevents people from coming downtown. So any change is a positive. The city has some good ideas for Perry and Clayton streets. I am a little disappointed with (the city) for not being able to do more on Crogan and Pike, but maybe in Phase II they will be able to address a little better,” said Linda Campbell, who lives and work, at Winfield Realty Group, on Pike Street.

Campbell said she would have liked for Crogan and Pike to have been taken back to two lanes or taken back to two-way lanes of traffic. She said that the city’s proposal of making both streets two-way could not be done due to the high volume of traffic on both of these streets.

Answering questions about parking on Perry Street and speed of traffic through downtown with proposed changes Dennis Billew, Planning and Zoning Director said, “We are leaving parking as is and reversing spaces where needed. We should not lose any parking (spaces).”

When asked if sidewalk on Perry Street by the Historic Courthouse will be extended or widened, Billew said “no."  Asked if the traffic on Crogan Street will slow down due to installation of traffic light Billew said, “The traffic on Pike and Crogan will slow because we will have a left turn movement at two intersections onto them (Pike and Crogan streets). This will be a longer signal (traffic light) to allow people turning from Perry and Clayton onto Crogan more time to make those turns.”

In response to other proposed changes, Billew said that there is a verbal agreement to re-designate State Route 20 off of Perry and Clayton streets. “There seems to be a mixed attitude from DOT (as to which streets should be designated).  A number of people at DOT prefer Jackson Street which has five lanes.” 

One business owner asked if car count will remain the same on Pike and Crogan streets after completion of proposed changes. In response John Walker from Kimley-Horn said, “Will it (car count) be the same, probably not identical. I don’t anticipate a huge movement of vehicles just because you flip some signs around. Most of the cars will be everyday folks that know where they want to go. I don’t see a dramatic change in the shift of traffic.”

Billew said that delays caused by street proposed changes could cause some drivers to seek alternate routes that would by-pass downtown area. “What I expect to happen is people will continue to use their same route until it becomes less convenient. At the point that it becomes inconvenient or takes more time, they will look for alternatives. And there are a number of alternatives to getting through town.”

Asked when the pedestrian crosswalk will be completed, Walker said,”It will take anywhere from nine months to a year to have it operational.” The proposed pedestrian crosswalk will function with synchronized traffic lights on affected streets.

Opening the door for more citizen involvement, Billew asked attendees for suggestions of best eight hour time period for the city to conduct pedestrian counts. 

The Georgia Department of Transportation has informed the city that due to city’s lack of left turning space from Scenic Highway onto Jackson Street, the city must add left turn storage at the median.

The city must also fix the short block that occurs where Buford Drive, State Route 20 and Jackson Street come together with connections to Pike and Crogan streets.

“The problem with the short block is there are five lanes, two lanes north and two lanes south with the center lane as a two way left turn lane serving north way and south way left. But it only allows for a couple of cars to turn in either direction without careening into each other with distance of only 375 feet. So we can’t go out and pull these intersections apart, so DOT has said the city must figure out how to fix this short block problem,” said Walker. 

Also up for redevelopment is the “island” separating the lanes of traffic at the corner of Clayton and Pike streets. “This will still be two lanes, one north and the other south, of traffic. Just like it is now, but the island will be clearly defined, right now it is not,” said Billew.

An audience member said he took exception to Mr. Billew’s opinion that an elevated or tunnel crosswalk would not work as a viable crosswalk option on Crogan Street. The city is proposing striped crosswalk with brick color stained concrete, in accordance with DOT guidelines.

“One of the things I have observed with the tunnel and bridge crosswalks, that definitely work and are definitely safe, but they are very expensive,” said Walker.