It's been a long time coming but Farmington officials expect to present the findings of a long term downtown parking study as soon as the end of the month.
"There's a light at the end of the tunnel," says Annette Knowles, executive director of the Farmington Downtown Development Authority. "At this point we're really close. It won't be long until we get this all wrapped up."
The study will address the status of parking in the downtown area, its immediate needs and long-term requirements. It will also detail ways to improve and expand parking options to help grow local businesses and make them more accessible to local residents.
The consultants have finished the study and city officials are currently assessing the recommendations. They expect to review and revise for the rest of the month before presenting the results to the public either at the end of this month or in early April.
This study is part of Farmington's wider effort to make downtown more pedestrian friendly. Last summer Dan Burden, the executive director of Walkable Communities Inc., took a tour of Farmington, suggesting local officials make downtown more pedestrian friendly by expanding the sidewalks and shrinking the roads. This would give more room to walkers and at the same time slow down traffic, making everyone feel safer.
The DDA is heading up an streetscape improvement initiative that would, among many other things, make sidewalks wider and install crosswalks to make downtown more accommodating to non-motorized traffic.
Burden also suggested incorporating traffic circles into downtown's street grid, specifically the intersection of Grand River Avenue and Grove Street, along with the intersection of Farmington Road, Orchard and Alta streets. The circles would slow down vehicles, calming traffic for pedestrians while also cutting down significantly on the stop-and-go traffic created by stop lights. Think Washington, D.C.'s, Dupont Circle or Detroit's Campus Martius on smaller scales. However, traffic circles are not part of the proposed streetscape improvements.
Source: Annette Knowles, executive director of the Farmington Downtown Development Authority
Writer: Jon Zemke
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