By Reader Staff
The city of Sandpoint is set to begin the next chapter for revitalizing the downtown core area. The city adopted the Downtown Streets Plan and Design Guidelines in 2012, with improvements to Church Street, Third and Fourth avenues between Pine and Church already completed. The city, with funding provided by the Sandpoint Urban Renewal Agency, is planning to reconstruct First Avenue from Pine Street to Cedar Street and Cedar Street from First Avenue to Fifth Avenue over the next three years.
Kathy Andruzak looks at one of the display images at the first open house meeting last month. Photo by Ben Olson.
The next step in implementing the plan will be the reconstruction of Cedar Street between Fifth and Second avenues (Phase 1 of the project) planned for construction in the summer and fall of 2017. The project will provide wider sidewalks with street furniture, storm gardens to treat stormwater before discharging to Sand Creek, Pend Oreille Lake and Pend Oreille River, places for public art, new landscaping and a change to two-way traffic. Parking will be changed to provide diagonal parking on some sides of the street and parallel parking on the opposite side of the street.
The city of Sandpoint will hold a second public open house for the project on Thursday, Feb. 23, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. on the second-floor balcony of the Columbia Bank located at 414 Church Street in Sandpoint for the Sandpoint Downtown Revitalization Project. The project includes the revision of traffic flow to two-way traffic on most downtown streets and the reconstruction of First Avenue and Cedar Street. The current one-way traffic on First Avenue, Cedar Street, Pine and Church streets will change from one-way to two-way traffic with diagonal and/or parallel parking on each block. The revision also includes the removal of traffic signals at Second/Cedar; Pine/First and Pine/Fifth. A new signal at Church and Fifth will be activated. The current date for the revision is the end of April after ITD finishes the Fifth Avenue project.
At this open house, attendees will review the preferred alternative for Phase 1 of the project, site furnishings, landscaping, bike rack locations, stormwater treatment, a revised street layout, loading zones and ADA parking locations.
The project website and Facebook page are now live. Please check out the website at https://sandpointstreets.com. On the site, you can send us a comment regarding the project, sign up to get project information and updates and link to Facebook.
Any person needing special accommodations to participate in the public open house should contact the Sandpoint Public Works Department at (208) 263.3407 at least 48 hours before the open house. Written comments can be sent to the City of Sandpoint Public Works Department at 1123 Lake Street, Sandpoint, ID 83864 or emailed to [email protected].
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