By Scott W. Harrison
Lexington residents are worried about the possibility of a new location for the Visitor Center and new traffic patterns downtown.
Those concerns were voiced Tuesday night, when more than 100 people showed up at the second of three public workshops on three proposed downtown enhancement plans. An initial idea to create diagonal parking has apparently been scrapped, partly as a result of earlier citizen responses.
The proposals were prepared by Cooper Planning, the Charlottesville-based consultant hired by the city to study ways to attract visitors and residents to the downtown area.
“We want downtown to be more comfortable for residents and visitors,” said Ashley Cooper, director of Cooper Planning. “We want it to have this stickiness factor.”
Each plan presented a different focal point downtown, defined as the area bounded by Preston, Henry, Jefferson and Randolph streets.
“Each one of them has a theme to them, a certain gateway approach,” said Barry Carpenter, who is working with Cooper Planning on the study. “There are some distinguishing qualities in each of them.”
- Cooper Planning’s first concept plan focuses on the traditional intersection of Washington Street and Main Street. Photo by: Cooper Planning
The first plan centers on the Washington and Main Street intersection, Lexington’s historic core. It would focus on the blocks of Main Street from Nelson to Henry streets, and the blocks on Washington Street from Randolph to Jefferson streets.
The second plan emphasizes the intersection of Nelson and Main, extending north down Main to Henry. Unlike the first plan, the second option would put utilities underground on both Jefferson and Randolph streets. The visitor center would also be moved near the Nelson and Randolph intersection.
The third plan also centers on Nelson and Main, but focuses instead on the strip of Main Street from Preston to Washington. It too would move the visitor center. One alternative in the plan would create two-way traffic on Main Street south of Nelson Street.
“The overarching goal is to create a central area and define it in downtown,” said Michael Zehner, director of Lexington’s Planning Development.
Carpenter noted commonalities, or “essential ingredients,” in all three plans. Each project dismissed diagonal parking spaces downtown, which had caused debate at the last public meeting in August.
All three plans would widen the sidewalks to improve pedestrian mobility and to offer places for outdoor dining. The plans also propose sharing lanes of traffic between bicycles and cars.
Community members wondered about the safety of sharing lanes of traffic this way. Some wondered what moving the Visitor Center would do to congestion downtown, especially if part of Main Street became two-way.
Others wanted to focus on U.S. 11 past Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee University.
Cooper said most people liked the emphasis on Lexington’s historic core because it stayed true to the city’s historical identity. But she said many people also wanted to broaden the focus to other parts of the city.
Any final plan, she said, would merge elements from each of the plans. That will not be decided on until after all three public meetings. The entire process is the first major attempt to revitalize downtown Lexington since the 1970s — when Main and Jefferson were made into one-way streets and utilities were buried on Main Street.
The third public meeting has not been scheduled.
The Downtown Enhancement Plan grew out of the “Main to Maury” project, initially proposed by Mayor Mimi Elrod and Chamber of Commerce President Sammy Moore. That project sought to connect downtown to the Maury River with bike routes and new parking arrangements.
Earlier this year, City Council voted to spend $56,000 to hire a consultant to look into a more comprehensive downtown study, with new bike routes being just part of the picture.
City Manager Jon Ellestad said that the time had come for such a study.
“It’s been many years since there was any investment in downtown,” he said. “We believed it was time to look into spurring investment to keep downtown economically viable.”
Zehner, Elrod and Ellestad are members of the Downtown Enhancement Plan’s Steering Committee, which has been in discussion with Cooper Planning. The steering committee also includes members from the business community and Washington and Lee.
Ellestad said there are two components to the plan – enhancing the appearance of downtown, and promoting businesses.
City officials have agreed that the 13 empty storefronts in downtown Lexington are a cause for concern.
“That’s pretty rough,” Council Member Mary Harvey-Halseth said recently. “That’s rough on our downtown.”
Elrod and others said one way to create a vibrant downtown is to promote events such as music at night.
Cooper said the study has sought to design “physical improvements that will make the spaces downtown more inviting.”
“There’s a lot of concern about the general economic situation and what should be done,” she said. “But the physical improvements need to be connected to an economic plan.”
Ellestad said he is working on a downtown improvements report for City Council. Council will need to approve any of the proposed changes for downtown before they are implemented. Ellestad said he has no specific recommendations yet.
Zehner said that improving the infrastructure downtown is crucial to promoting Lexington’s economic health. “The question is what can we do to make downtown more welcoming as a community feature and also to promote economic vitality.”
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