Options aired for Galveston streetscape

Business owners and residents weighed in at a Bend open house Thursday night on proposed designs for a renovated Galveston Avenue corridor.

The city asked for public input to select a preferred design concept to present to the city council for final approval.

Both of the designs propose major changes between 14 th Street and Galveston Avenue to the Tumalo Avenue bridge. The major difference is that one calls for two lanes, the other keeps three.

Both plans include needed improvements.

City Growth Management Director Nick Arnis says the major concerns when designing were to improve safety, with “the lack of sidewalks on Galveston, the lack of adequate bike lanes.”

Also important: stormwater management. He said, “We have a storm drain issue that people don’t necessarily see, but there’s pipes underground that are going out to the river.”

Parking is also an issue, and one idea is to make Columbia Street and Harmon Boulevard each a one-way street, with parking.

“There’s a triangle at Harmon and Galveston, so by the Shell station we’d like to use that street for on-street parking so people that can come to the Galveston Corridor-park and get out of the car and walk up and down instead of circulating through the neighborhood,” Arnis said.

Both design plans also propose a mini-roundabout at Harmon and Galveston. And that’s already sparking some opposition.

According to Nicole Weathers, a task force member and Galveston Avenue business owner, 26 business owners on Galveston are against the roundabout. They’re up for changes on Galveston, for sidewalks and improved bike lanes, but not more congestion.

“Anybody that’s driven on Galveston knows and is familiar with the 14th and Galveston circle knows how far that can back up, and this circle is smaller-more confusing — it’s an oval,” Weathers said.

About 15 of the street’s 26 business owners attended Thursday night’s meeting.

Weathers says she’s not opposed to slowing down traffic on the street, but not to the extent where it’s too much.

And the fear is long-term effects from the changes Weathers feels will impact business owners, including the project itself.

“If you close down portions of these streets for eight months to do this heavy of construction, I fear some of these businesses will go out of business,” she said.

The goal on Thursday night was to try to narrow down one of two design options given, though the “green dot” board showed a fairly equal three-way split between the three-lane “hybrid” concept, a two-lane option — or a write-in to support neither concept.

The task force will meet again with city planners on Thursday, May 7 to review comments given at the meeting. They hope to finalize recommendations for the city council to review.

The meeting will be at City Hall from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is open to the public.

For questions or concerns regarding the plan you can email Nick Arnis at narnis@bendoregon.gov.

More information on the project can be seen on the city’s Website at: http://bendoregon.gov/index.aspx?page=1092