The City’s design consultant, CDM Smith, will be presenting an update on Phase 1 of the Rodney Street Reconstruction Project. The project is to reconstruct the curb, gutter, sidewalk, street, water mains, and sewer mains from Broadway to 9th Ave. The consultant’s first design, based on the City Engineering Standards, included 10-foot travel lanes, 6-foot parking lanes, 2-foot curb and gutter, 7-foot landscaped boulevards, and 5-foot sidewalks with curb extensions (bulb-outs) to enhance pedestrian safety and provide additional greenspace.

Through the four public meetings on the project, the overwhelming comments were to maintain the feel of the existing street, keeping or replacing trees, and enhance the landscape. Business owners voiced concerns over narrowing of the street to the City Standard 10-foot travel lanes and the bulb-outs. The major concerns for the business owners from narrowing of the street was the impact to on-street parking, delivery trucks, and safety for exiting from parked cars. There were additional concerns from the business owners that the bulb-outs would impact on-street parking and turning movements of delivery trucks. As a result of the public meetings and business owner concerns, the design has been modified to increase the travel lanes to 11-feet and reduced the bulb-outs for easier truck turning movements in the business section, Broadway to 6th Ave. The modifications to the City Standard Design will require a deviation for wider travel lanes and eliminate or reduce landscaping and trees in the business section.