Title
Resolution to Approve a Conceptual Plan to Redesign Fifth Avenue and Division Streets between Packard and Beakes to be More Bicycle and Pedestrian Friendly
Memorandum
Attached for your review and approval is a resolution to approve a conceptual plan to redesign Fifth Avenue and Division Street as "complete streets" that encourage pedestrian and bicycle transportation choices and enhance residential, civic, and commercial uses along these corridors, while at the same time providing for the motorists who use these streets to traverse our city.
Transportation planning in the past worked to move cars but often neglected to consider the needs of people who lived and worked near highly trafficked corridors. The Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority has spent several years developing a plan that will accommodate traffic demands along Fifth and Division, while at the same time will address other community needs.
Approval of the conceptual plan by City Council will serve several purposes. It will give direction to planning staff assisting downtown developers with their site plans. It will encourage greater numbers of people to use their feet or a bicycle when traveling through the downtown, thus making them better able to minimize the use of their car downtown. It will enable the State of Michigan to complete its review of an approximately $1 million grant to the DDA for the first phase of improvements. And it will give direction to the DDA as it prioritizes future funding for downtown projects.
The DDA proposed plan for Fifth and Division is supported by the City's recently approved 2007 Non-Motorized Plan and goals set forward in the 1988 Downtown Plan. It also addresses key elements in the proposed 2008 Downtown Plan update, which sets forward the following Guiding Values:
??Downtown will continue to accommodate and foster central business, government, shopping, cultural and entertainment functions within a reasonably compact, walkable area.
?...
Click here for full text