UKIAH, 11/06/19 — The Ukiah City Council will be deliberating the long discussed and much debate downtown “streetscape” project tonight, at 6 p.m. in chambers.
The project aims to revamp much of downtown Ukiah, and especially State St., which used to be part of U.S 101 (the bypass was completed 54 years ago this month) and has not been upgraded much since its status as a highway lapsed.
So come enjoy participatory democracy tonight at the Ukiah Civic Center at 300 Seminary Drive.
Here’s the full announcement. You can read the full report here, and you can watch our video from the tktkt here.
On Wednesday, November 6th, the City Council will receive an update regarding the project and will have an opportunity to review the plans and specifications. If approved, the next step is to put the project out to bid for 30 days. After that, Council would be presented with the results from the bidding and determine whether to award the bid. Again, if approved, the intention is for construction to begin in January. Public input is invited at each of these meetings.
City of Ukiah press release.
This week’s meeting begins at 6:00 at the Ukiah Civic Center, 300 Seminary Avenue. Here is a link to the full agenda: http://www.cityofukiah.com/meetings/ If you are unable to attend the meeting, you may also see it live-streamed (from the same link) or watch it on cable channel 3. Alternatively, the video will be uploaded to the website (same link) by the end of the day on Thursday, November 7th.
Attached for your information is the staff report for this item, which provides some important background information.
This will bottleneck the streets its bad enough as is this will make it much worse.
Leave State St. like it is. It’s hard enough to get through town. Don’t decrease the number of lanes. You will create mass confusion and it’s not necessary. Think about emergency vehicles trying to get through the busiest section. “Don’t try and fix what ain’t broke “. We have much more important issues to concentrate and spend money on.
I agree with you.
This decision has already been made, contracts in place and some work already taking place. There is not much anyone From outside the City Council or City if Ukiah Management can say. This project is something the City Manager is on record as saying he wants the project to move forward. In my opinion it will make ukiah downtown look more appealing and in line with Cities of Healdsburg and Cloverdale.
I do however think there has not been enough information/study as to the traffic impacts. We know that we are in an area where fire emergencies are high and in a situation where Ukiah is a funnel for a fire that one lane to escape could be a problem.
I know many years ago there were lots of arguments against 2 lanes each way and the City Council approved 4 lanes. We are now full circle and going backwards. I think many Ukiah people would prefer that the streets they live on be cared for before some beautification process of Down town and State Street. I know the response is “we received specific grant funding” to complete this process. The problem is that you have City staff that have to monitor and evaluate this special project when those staff could be used on the many road issues in Ukiah.
Like I said in the beginning it does not really matter what the public has to say. This is just a step so the City officials can say we went out and asked the “public”.
I hope that this project ultimately serves the public well and that in 20 years another City Council is not asking the questions of the public, “should State Street have 4 lanes”? And already be in the process of eliminating the barriers that don’t allow for the amount of lanes they want to reopen.
Dora will become congested as people flee the nonsense.
“Far Out” Man… Ugh. School Street is being pounded into gravel from East Mill to Gobbi St. Dora is clogged with stop signs and equally degraded roads. I ride a motorcycle and I’d just love to sue the City when their roads cause me to lay my bike over and crack some ribs.
I think that it is a huge mistake to make less lanes on State Street. What if there is a wildfire? One lane each way, reminds me of Paradise. All those people were stuck in one lane traffic. Please don’t lessen the lanes. We have far more important things to repair. Fix our roads and sidewalks. Put more street lights. Make an off ramp by Costco.
So far, the corner projections have only caused drivers to have to swerve into oncoming traffic to make a RIGHT turn, hide small children with the weeds that grow in the dirt, and cause bicyclists to swerve out around them, basically into traffic, going down the road. HOW do these asinine corner nipples help pedestrians? The crosswalks with flashing lights make sense. Those dumbass corner projections into the lanes are hazards; just look at the black marks from tires. The proposal for State Street includes those stupid corner nipples, as well as taking away a lane in either direction and instituting a left turn lane for the length of the street. I can see the turn lane being useful, but I think the loss of a lane in either direction while still allowing parking on the street will cause a lot of problems and clog things up. I’m not a fan of those corners. But, I’m really not fan of this change.
Unless you open up other ways for traffic to go north & south through town, I don’t like the idea of turning State Street into two lanes again. When I was very young & it was still St. HWY 101 it was just two lanes &very congested. It was lovely with trees on both sides, but crowded. We have crowded traffic now. Even Dora Avenue & Orchard Avenue can be very busy. You may need to do some rethinking.
This and the rail trail are both beyond belief!!!!!!! I have yet to hear anyone say that either one of them is a good idea but rather more ways to waste taxpayer funds. May I caution you that an election is in your future—-
I agree.
Who in the heck even comes up with these ideas? Why? Just why?
A year later and all we have are blinking lights at each intersection. NOBODY in Ukiah seems to know how to stop at a regular four-way intersection controlled by signs without turn lanes. Do they even teach that in driver’s ed anymore? When, oh when, will these be returned to full functionality? Green/Yellow/Red/Turn signals? What is taking so long?
Sorry, two years later. I can math, really.