Council talks traffic calming, street enhancement plan

CHELAN – In a special meeting on May 7, the Chelan City Council heard from Eric Johnston of SCJ Alliance on design ideas to provide traffic calming, transportation options and street enhancement in Chelan.

In terms of transportation, SCJ Alliance has been working with the City of Chelan for over 10 years off and on. “There’s a number of issues we are trying to resolve as we go through the Downtown Improvement project,” said Johnston as he began his presentation. Incomplete infrastructure, regional traffic, summer crowds, parking, cut-through traffic, growth vs. small town, shifting travel modes, along with access and circulation are some of the issues Johnston touched on. “We are trying to make sure all of that is accounted for … everything we are doing today, we want to make sure it is meeting the needs 20 years out,” he said.

In 2009, the Chelan origination/destination study was conducted to see where people are coming from and see where they are trying to go. “We studied that to see what kind of traffic we are dealing with,” explained Johnston. A year later, in 2010, the Chelan Downtown Master Plan was implemented. The project was focused on the downtown area quite heavily and included all the main intersections. SCJ updated the Chelan Transportation Plan in 2011 and again in 2017. “We are trying to be consistent on what we have been doing over the years, so we are not rethinking every year, but we are revisiting and fine tuning it,” said Johnston. He added that all the studies equal the results seen lately in town. Bradley, Johnston, Woodin and now Columbia are examples of such. “It takes awhile to do some of these things, so we want to start thinking about the future now,” he said to the council.

Johnston explained the Complementary Corridors Strategy to the council which will help with project design decisions in the future. In the Transportation Plan, Gibson, Union Valley Rd, Woodin, Johnson, Navarre, Sanders and SR 150 are identified as having the most vehicular traffic. Nixon, Columbia, Woodin, Wapato and Bradley are streets emphasized for bicyclists and pedestrians.

For example, Sanders St.  will be aimed at keeping the traffic flowing and at the same time slowing it down by adding landscaping. Bike lanes, sidewalks, and on-street parallel parking will also be part of the improvements. “We know that is going to be more traffic on these streets so let’s make it more pleasant for the homeowners,” said Johnston.

On the non-motorized streets such as Nixon Ave., multi-use paths, sidewalks and landscape buffer will be implemented to accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists. “It’s a more comfortable environment, there’s less traffic which gives you the opportunity to do these other amenities,” stated Johnston.

The council then had a discussion to figure out which streets are a priority, based on Johnston’s presentation. It was determined that Gibson needs to modified in order keep traffic under control. “It looks like a place you can speed and it is also a residential neighborhood,” said councilmen Tim Hollingsworth as to why it should be a top priority. “We need to have a nice balance between the pedestrians and motorized areas,” said councilwomen Kelly Allen. Emerson and Cedar were another streets thrown in the mix by the council to be studied and be turned into a pedestrian route.