Thanks to Megan McLaughlin with Dover, Kohl & Partners for the following update on what’s happening with the Stone Avenue Plan.
“The Stone Avenue Plan is moving forward. Over the summer, Dover, Kohl & Partners and Hall Planning & Engineering worked closely with City staff to prepare a detailed phasing plan for the Stone Avenue road diet. We created a three-step phasing plan that can transform Stone Avenue’s current 4-lane configuration into a 2-lane road with left-turn lanes, on-street parking, street trees, and sharrows for bicyclists. The first step of the plan is a “paint-only” scenario that could be implemented quickly and cheaply by restriping the travel lanes and striping a lane of on-street parking on the south side of the street. This could be used as a testing period before making more significant investment in street improvements. Step two of the phasing plan involves planting street trees on the south side of the street, widening sidewalks, and installing distinctive street lights. Step three of the phasing plan involves adding on-street parking and street trees to both sides of the street.
On August 24th, Dover Kohl, Hall Planning & Engineering, and City staff met with SCDOT to meet and discuss the charrette vision for Stone Avenue, and explain the road diet phasing plan. SCDOT did not feel that they could make a determination to support or oppose the Stone Avenue road diet without further investigation of traffic impacts. They asked us to submit all of our transportation analysis data so that they could review our work and conduct their own internal analysis. We have sent our work to them and we expect to hear back at the end of September.
A critical question was raised during our meeting with SCDOT. Towards the end of the meeting, a SCDOT engineer asked, “Does the City support this road diet?” This is where North Main residents and the Friends of Stone Avenue are needed to step in. Tell your elected officials about your vision for Stone Avenue and let them know your opinion on the road diet. It is important that SCDOT receives a clear message from the City of Greenville about its stance on this project.
Because we are waiting to hear from SCDOT at the end of September, it is likely that the next public meeting for the Stone Avenue will be in November. We will let you know as soon as a date is confirmed.”
