The Winding Road of Change
By Jayna Watson, City Planner, Spearfish SD
At the 2017 Western Planner conference, Charles Marohn, founder of the advocacy group Strong Towns (www.strongtowns.org), reviewed the benefits of tackling large public works projects in smaller incremental steps. The core of Marohn’s message is that instead of pursuing multi-million dollar infrastructure investments that result in permanent and big changes, test out the design themes first in a scaled down version. This approach recently played out in Spearfish, South Dakota as the community spent the last year discussing options for the renovation of a key street, Jackson Boulevard, beginning with an expansive (and expensive) new vision for the street, and ending up with something significantly different.
Jackson is the primary gateway into downtown Spearfish. Once the driver leaves Interstate 90, the view along this street is framed by quaint neighborhoods on both sides and in the distance, Crow Peak invites the explorer to hike her trails to a breathtaking summit at just over one mile above sea level.
Jackson Boulevard Current Conditions
This major street has existed for over 125 years. The current four-lane configuration is within a 100 foot right of way and has existed since the 1970s when the Interstate highway was built. Drainage issues, pavement and sidewalk deterioration, plus a host of the usual suspects of aging infrastructure prompted the city to begin planning for a major upgrade of a mile long section of this street that originally was to take place in 2018.
Our citizens are a caring and involved group of people that want to be part of major decisions and Jackson’s remodel was no exception. Knowing this, the city initiated a citizen-driven design process in February 2017 and an extensive public meeting campaign was started which included mailed postcards to the landowners along Jackson, as well as invitations posted on the city’s website and social media. 24
The first public meeting filled the City Council chambers with over 60 people as the design team represented by AE2S/Civi Engineering, Olsson and Associates/Traffic Engineering and Tallgrass/Landscape Architecture rolled out every idea possible for what could comprise a new vision for Jackson. The public was invited to write down their comments and attach them to the various idea boards that included landscape medians, new bike lanes, wider sidewalks, updated street lights, public art, street furniture, and the like.
Residents use templates to discuss options
Post-it notes covered the idea boards with some instances of one person writing down a comment and another who wrote something completely opposite. People were able to vote for ideas they liked using colored sticky dots. Street design templates were used like paper dolls as people experimented with different street layouts and configurations to see what they liked the best. From all of this input, the design teamwas then tasked with combining hundreds of ideas and concepts into one cohesive vision. In May of 2017, the team returned to the City Council and presented their design proposal using illustrations of the before and after scenarios to depict the plan.
Before: Existing 4 lane Jackson Boulevard
The preliminary design vision included these main features that are key themes of the Road Diet philosoph: 1) SOUTH DAKOTA MUNICIPALITIES
