GAINESVILLE – The Gainesville City Council heard plans at its Thursday morning work session for improving a heavily travelled corridor on the city’s north side which suffers from, among other things, an identity crisis.
The project is an extension of the Downtown Master Plan presented in 2015 to the city council. It will reach north from the Gainesville Civic Center to the entrance of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.
That stretch of highway is known by an assortment of names, some of which refer to just a portion of the 2.5-miles under consideration: Morningside Drive, Riverside Drive, Park Hill Drive, Ronnie Green Parkway, Cleveland Highway, State Route 11 and U.S. 129.
Those involved in Thursday’s presentation - Rusty Ligon, Gainesville’s Director of the Community and Economic Development Department; Leigh Elkins, Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia; Elizabeth Higgins, life-long resident and member of the Hall County Vision 2030 Project; and Brad Abernathy, business owner along the corridor - alternated between names. Even long-tenured locals use any of the above-mentioned monikers when referring to the area.
According to city officials the presentation is the result of a year-long study by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government into a strategy focused on improving vehicular and pedestrian access, streetscaping, sidewalks, green space opportunities, parking and repurposing existing development-in-need-of-attention along the corridor. A major contributor to the recommendations presented to the city council came from community surveys and a fourteen-member steering committee.
Elkins said members of the steering committee were asked to spend time canvasing the area and then to list the things along the corridor they felt were working and those things they felt needed change.
Elkins said using the lists the committee members submitted a roster of six areas of promise and six areas of concern was created.
“Ironically,” Elkins said smiling, “Green’s Grocery landed on both of those. People love that area, people love that small commercial node, it’s heavily used…it’s very much a part of the neighborhood, but people also see it as an under-utilized piece of property, and there are things to improve how it looks and how it functions.”
Survey data from people living in the area was also definitive. “Traffic and pedestrian movement were some of the biggest concerns,” Elkins told council. She said other items appearing frequently in survey responses were lack of connectivity of sidewalks, and general cleanliness and upkeep to the multiple apartment complexes along the roadway.
Abernathy told the city council, “Doing all this infrastructure change is going to bring in investment.”
“And we need to create a unified identity,” Abernathy said, “since it’s called Riverside Drive, it’s called Morningside Drive, it’s called Park Hill Drive, it’s called U.S. 129, it’s called Cleveland Highway, it’s called Ronnie Green Parkway. It’s really sort of crazy.”
Short-term projects under consideration include:
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adding a crosswalk at Oak Tree Drive, a crosswalk in front of the Inn Between Deli with a center lane island for pedestrian safety, and a crosswalk with a pedestrian island between Norwood Apartments and the laundromat
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reducing curb cuts where possible
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installing missing segments of sidewalk where possible
Among long term projects to be considered:
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lengthen Oak Tree Drive’s right turn lane
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change lane spacing to allow for sidewalk construction where not currently possible
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build a roundabout at Riverside Drive and Morningside Drive
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create recreation green spaces where possible
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consider better use of the 10-acre parking lot fronting Northlake Plaza including total redevelopment
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improve bus stops along the corridor
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utilize and develop land at the relocated corner of Enota Drive and Park Hill Drive
City council member Barbara Brooks said she liked the plan and supported it, but she hoped to see similar focus given to the same roadway (U.S. 129) as it heads south, leaving downtown and as it crosses I-985.
“I can’t wait to see what the conclusion is…but I’m gonna push you to go south with that same intensity,” she said amicably to Ligon.
“I encourage you to look at the entire perimeter of the city,” Brooks urged. “Gainesville is more than one area.”
(To view the presentation seen by the Gainesville City Council Thursday morning and learn of many other items under consideration click here; then select “Park Hill Corridor Presentation” at the bottom of the page.)
