Community Engagement (2019 to present)

Public Engagement (2019 to present)

Public engagement for this project began in 2019 when a fact sheet was distributed and will continue through the Spring of 2021. Important milestones are outlined below and included a virtual neighborhood discussion and tour of the street, two online surveys, project updates at a Hector Campbell Neighborhood District Association (NDA) meeting, and a comment form to answer questions that was provided to the community in late February 2021 through March 2021.

June 22, 2020 - Virtual Project Tour and Neighborhood Discussion via Zoom

What we heard from the 34 households who attended:

• People generally feel somewhat unsafe as a pedestrian on Home Ave.
• Vehicles speed on Home Ave.
  • Answer: We will reinstall the two existing speed humps.
• Can the sidewalk switch back and forth between the east and west sides of the street at Park Ave.?
  • Answer: We studied the possibility of this idea and realized that there would be many adverse impacts to private property owners on the east side of Home Ave. due to the steep slopes in some areas, so we opted to keep it on the west side.
• Tree preservation is more important to neighbors than preserving on-street parallel parking.
  • Answer: As a Tree City, we agree! We are saving as many trees as we can and currently plan to remove only five trees that are located in the public right-of-way.
• People are most interested in buffering the sidewalk from the street by building a traditional raised sidewalk with a curb or installing a landscaped area or grass swale between the sidewalk and the street.
  • Answer: We plan to separate the sidewalk from the roadway with a landscape area. There will also be sections of raised sidewalk with curb.
• There is desire for a 4-way stop at Park St.
  • Answer: Traffic studies have shown that there isn’t a high enough volume of traffic at this time to justify a 4-way stop.
• Concern about sight lines at Dick St.
  • Answer: The city is shifting the entire roadway over at Dick St. to improve visibility and preserve trees.
• Desire for striped crosswalks on Home Ave.
  • Answer: We will stripe crosswalks in the north-south direction along Home Ave. as well as many east-west crossing locations.

July 1 - July 31, 2020 - First Online Survey

The first online survey (SurveyMonkey) was open for the entire month of July 2020 and 86 people participated. We promoted this survey during the June 2020 virtual project tour and neighborhood meeting described below. Here is a basic summary of the survey results:

• People in general felt somewhat unsafe as a pedestrian on Home Ave.
• The most frequently-crossed intersection for pedestrians on Home Ave. is at Monroe St.
• People feel safer walking on the west side of Home Ave. than they do on the east side.
• The vast majority of people believe that preserving trees is more important than preserving the existence of on-street parallel parking or building the sidewalk as far from the roadway as possible.
• The top suggestions for how to distinguish or separate the sidewalk from the roadway were to build a raised sidewalk with a curb and to create a landscaped, grassy area, or gravel barrier between the roadway and the sidewalk.
• When people walk along Home Ave., they are usually out for a neighborhood stroll, with no specific destination in mind.

October 26 – November 16, 2020 – Second Online Survey

Home Ave. is planned to be repaved with an overlay, rather than a full road reconstruction, so it’s difficult for the city to construct curbs. We surveyed people on how to make the sidewalk feel safe and separate it from the roadway, without necessarily adding curbs. This is what we heard from the 41 people who participated in the online survey.

• 24 people wanted the sidewalk separated from the street with raised curb, with either the curb located next to the sidewalk or separated from the sidewalk with a landscape area.
• 10 people wanted a grass swale between the sidewalk and the street.

February 26 – March 31, 2021 – General Comment Form Open

We posted a notice on Facebook and sent an email blast to the Hector Campbell NDA and our interested parties list to tell them that we have decided to construct the sidewalk on the west side of the street and why. A handful of people shared their concerns and desires.