Street plan for Tower District draws attention.

Written by By Russell Clemings / The Fresno Bee
08/17/09 08:11:15

A conceptual plan for Tower District street improvements is drawing attention -- some of it critical -- over the idea of traffic circles on Olive Avenue at Wishon and Van Ness avenues.

Two community meetings last month produced an initial plan whose main features included the traffic circles as well as a landscaped pedestrian mall along Fulton Street between Fern and Alhambra avenues, in the heart of the historic Fresno neighborhood.

A followup meeting is likely to be held in September, city planner Will Tackett said. In the meantime, local Internet discussion groups have hosted lively debate about details that were floated at the first two meetings.

It's all part of a two-decade effort to spruce up what might be Fresno's most distinctive neighborhood.

Fresno City Council Member Blong Xiong, who represents the Tower District, said he hopes that some of the less ambitious improvements can be done before an existing $275,000 budget allocation, which is also paying for the design work by a private firm, is exhausted.

No timetable has been set. But many in the neighborhood are enthusiastic.

"I think the Tower needs a facelift," said Palomino's owner Paul Palomino. "It's historical. It's a destination spot."

New trees and wider sidewalks also are part of the early plans. But the traffic circles, whose primary purpose would be to "calm" traffic through the Tower, have gotten most of the attention in the early going.

"The designers seemed to be pushing us in that direction" at July's community meetings, said architecture critic and lifelong Tower resident Kiel Famellos-Schmidt. He is unsure about the idea.

"I think traffic circles can work," he said. "I don't think the intersections where they are proposed are the right ones."

Famellos-Schmidt said a better location would be the junction of Wishon and Fern avenues, a block north of Olive. There, a traffic circle could help slow down traffic coming south on Wishon as it enters the busy commercial blocks around Olive.

Whether the circles would replace the existing signals or co-exist with them is a detail not yet decided. Nevertheless, Tower business owners in last month's meetings had some of the same misgivings about them, said Bill Kuebler, director of the Tower District Marketing Committee.

"There were a lot of people who were concerned about the safety aspect," Kuebler said.

Still, for others, such concerns are overridden by gratitude that the neighborhood is finally in line for a sprucing-up.

"I think it's all positive," said Irene's Cafe owner Irene Saul. "I'm very happy."

The major features are getting most of the attention. But the conceptual plan contains a lot of less weighty ideas as well.

Both Wishon and Van Ness could revert to two-way traffic; they're one-way at present. New trees, contrasting pavement at intersections and crosswalks, plus benches and wider sidewalks are among the other possibilities.

Xiong acknowledges opposition to the proposed traffic circles but said it may be "just a matter of getting people accustomed to them" and working through the details to ensure that they have the intended traffic-calming effect.

In any case, Tackett, the city staff member overseeing the process, said the current proposals are not set in stone.

In fact, he said, the next meeting will permit neighborhood residents, business owners and others to discuss the proposals in detail.

"People are getting a little bit attached to something that is conceptual in design," he said. The reporter can be reached at rclemings@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6371.