City wants input on new downtown streetscape

The city of Healdsburg has plans to extend the streetscape style
of the plaza beyond the square, updating the sidewalks, parking and
landscape on streets north of the plaza.
With the use of Redevelopment Funds, the streetscape project is
an extension of original plans drawn up by the city in 1989 that
made the downtown more walkable.
“We wanted to take the existing streetscape and extend it up and
update it a bit,” said Scott Rodolph with the Public Works
Department.
The project is planned to include new pocket parks, additional
street trees, bulb-out pedestrian ramps at street corners to
enhance pedestrian safety, bio-swales to improve storm water
quality and other related improvements along portions of Center
Street and North Street north of Plaza Street.
Two new conceptual plans for the project will be introduced to
the public at gatherings to be held next week. Both on May 18, the
first will be an on-site information session held from 2 to 4 p.m.
in front of Flying Goat Coffee, 324 Center St.
Project designers and city staff will be displaying preliminary
design sketches, answering questions and taking comments on the
improvement project.
The second meeting will be held later that same evening, from
5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Healdsburg Senior Center, 133 Matheson
St.
Comments from these meetings will be forwarded to the City
Council for consideration in selecting the final project
design.
“We are trying to focus on bringing the textures and colors from
the plaza to the next block,” Rodolph said.
The plans address multiple areas that take those streets to the
next level, Rodolph said.
Parking configurations could change along Center Street and
North Street, making way for “bulb-outs” and “pocket parks” — what
Rodolph explained as “using un-used space in a good way.”
For example, the corner in front of Flying Goat Coffee and
Powell’s Sweet Shoppe could transform into a space for people to
sit at tables or benches, and be landscaped by storm water in the
winter. A similar idea could be used in front of Zin and on North
Street at the corner of Healdsburg Avenue.
The addition of trees, widening the sidewalks and adding an
underground storm drain down North Street are included in the plans
as well.
Rodolph said that if the community is receptive to the plans,
construction could begin in late summer and would last two to four
months.
For more information about the community information sessions,
contact the Public Works Department at 431-3346.
Tribune Editor Kerrie Lindecker can be reached at Ke****@so********.com.