"Ambitious plans for long-suffering West Capitol Avenue"

'Ambitious plans for long-suffering West Capitol Avenue'

By Steve Marschke

News-Ledger Editor

An enthusiastic city council last week listened and gave suggestions as a consultant outlined plans to completely change the character of West Capitol Avenue, the city’s wide-and-often-barren thoroughfare.

Much of the discussion – and the slide show showing urban examples from other cities – centered on how to turn the 130-foot wide street into something more “people-friendly.” From Harbor Boulevard to the railroad underpass, consultants and the city’s redevelopment agency are focusing on ideas such as bringing new development out to the sidewalk instead of pushing it behind a parking lot, creating tree-lined buffers separating sidewalks from the street and using landscaped boulevards to further “narrow” the street.

One consultant told the council that the 200-foot square blocks in Portland are one of the reasons “Portland is celebrated as one of the most pedestrian-friendly cities in the nation,” while “if you take a snapshot of West Capitol, you can see why it is one of the most pedestrian-unfriendly in design.”

“People jaywalk at great risk, but they do so all the time,” he added. “At the widest, the street is 135 feet wide, with 110 feet in the pedestrian ‘realm.’ That in no way can make a pedestrian-friendly street.”

The stretch of West Capitol under study is divided into five different “neighborhoods,” each to have a distinct blend of uses, but with “a single uniform experience” uniting them, suggested the consultant from MIG, Inc.

The changes are envisioned to expand on the “West Capitol Avenue Master Plan” from the early 1990s when, as one council member remembered, “we were excited about just the idea of putting sidewalks on the street.”

The results of the ongoing new study are expected to result in new guidelines for building along the corridor, which are meant to work with the private sector and help change West Capitol’s character over time.

In related news, the council agreed to sell the former Siesta Inn and Sutter House Motel site to Sequoia, a private developer intending to build the “Lofts” project at on 1700-block of West Capitol. The project will feature townhomes and some commercial uses along West Capitol, and it will reach from West Capitol to Merkley Avenue.

“This is an exciting property,” remarked Councilman Wes Beers. “How long it is we’ve waited for ‘market-rate anything’ on West Capitol,” he added, referring to the past need to subsidize new development on the strip.

Council members including Beers, Bill Kristoff and Christopher Cabaldon objected to the face that the “Lofts” design plans currently show to the existing neighborhood on Merkley. The drawings displayed at the council meeting showed that the existing Merkley homes will be looking at the flat sides of the new townhouses and a parking area.

“It’s like looking at the back side of a barn,” commented Councilman Oscar Villegas.

“That’s being reworked,” reported city staffer Paul Dirksen. “The planning commission already commented on that issue.”

Which prompted Mayor Christopher Cabaldon to quip of the planning commissioners: “I knew there was a reason those people made 30 bucks a night.”

The council also approved a transportation management plan designed to reduce congestion at the proposed Raley’s Landing development in the riverfront area (north of the Tower Bridge). The plan uses partial funding from the developer to help create a wide-ranging plan for transit use, bike lockers and other potential means of preventing some of the single-occupant vehicle trips expected to be generated by the massive project.

“I’m nervous about whether this is really going to have the impact we’re hoping for,” said Mayor Cabaldon of the pioneering plan.