Wider sidewalks. More landscaping. Event space. Exchanging angled parking for parallel parking. A one-lane Main Street. A two-way Main Street.
These are just a few of the ideas community members suggested during the two days of workshops the Town of Franklin held on May 28 and 29 to help launch its Main Street Transformation project.
During morning sessions on Thursday and Friday, people could come in and talk to the designers as they drew various options for Main Street. Thursday afternoon there was a drop-in open house and on Friday afternoon a “concept pin up” where people could view all the ideas presented.
During Monday’s Town Council meeting, Town Manager Amie Owens said about 125 people signed into the sessions, but there were others who attended that did not sign in. Mayor Stacy Guffey and Vice Mayor Mike Lewis thanked those who participated.
The morning of May 29, the Town Council met with representatives from the lead firm McAdams and subconsultant Toole Designs.
“The number of people we had yesterday really exceeded my expectations,” said Guffey said on Friday morning. He said they saw a lot of enthusiasm and people from all over the county were participating. There were even people who vacation here and saw the sign and came in.
In addition to potentially changing the design of Main Street, Kristy Carter of McAdams talked about how those changes could help address the ongoing issues related to speeding, pedestrian safety, accessibility and parking.
“This is the shaping of a vision for what people want to see downtown,” Carter said.
The workshops were held at Twenty-Eight Main Events. There was a display featuring examples of other Main Street designs. One wall gave people the chance to post photographs of things they would like to see on Main Street and then ranked their level of support (high, medium, low) for what they would be willing to trade to get that. For example, if you want more trees, would you be willing to trade walking space? Or if you want a public restroom facility, would you support trading space that might be used for trees?
Carter said as the day went on they started hearing some repeated themes and concerns. “It’s actually a good sign, because it means we’re starting to see what’s really important.”
Carter said in downtown exercises like this parking is a common theme. “Parking has been a big conversation, but it hasn’t felt really contentious,” she said. On the display of community ideas, a parking deck had little support, but people show more support for exchanging the angled parking for parallel parking.
In addition to the items listed above, some of the other suggestions included connecting to Greenway, public restrooms, apartments on the upper floors, improving the alleyways, better signage, parklets, public art, adding color, and moving the courthouse to the old hospital property. Some of the ideas suggested such as an event space or pavilion are on the town’s plans for Sunnyside Park in East Franklin.
“It’s just being able to engage with downtown in different ways,” Carter said.
Wider sidewalks
Sarah Johnson of Toole Design said Franklin’s sidewalks vary from 7- to 8-feet wide and are as narrow as four feet in some places. With landscaping, trash cans, merchant racks and signs, the walking space can be limited, especially if two people are walking side-by-side. It was also noted that with the angled parking and the slope of the road, it feels like the cars are encroaching on the sidewalks, making the sidewalks feel even more crowded.
Different sidewalk widths were taped out on the floor to help visualize the possible changes. For example, sidewalks that are 14 ½ feet wide would allow 8 feet for pedestrian space and 6 feet for amenities such as trees, benches, and merchant displays.
Traffic on Main Street
Based on cell phone data, there is a lot of traffic going through Main Street but not necessarily stopping, according to Johnson.
“They’re not stopping or starting [from Main Street],” Johnson said. “There could be all sorts of reasons for that. Maybe Google says it is one minute faster. Maybe they said, ‘I’d like to just see what it looks like, even though I’m not going to stop.’ Because you have one-way streets, they may need to get up north of Main Street to some of those neighborhoods. And, depending on where they are coming from, it may just be faster to come through town.”
Johnson said they will look at different options such as a one-lane Main Street and two lanes with two-way traffic. Carter said there also could be “traffic-calming” solutions to use with the existing traffic pattern.
Guffey said he would want to look at the economic benefits of the different lane options. Carter said based on other Main Street communities they have worked with, most business prefer two-way traffic.
“Two-way streets have a lot of flexibility,” said Ian Lockwood of Toole Design.
A one-lane street could also create emergency response issues, and changing Main Street’s traffic flow would also impact Palmer Street.
Because Main Street is owned by the N.C. Department of Transportation, they will need to be involved in any proposed changes and give approval. DOT is scheduled to pave Main Street in 2028, and the town is hoping to make some improvements to coincide with that. However, changing the traffic pattern could take longer.
“We do have NCDOT involved,” Carter said. “They are at the table. They’re open – we’ve got them open to these ideas, which is huge. They’ll just want to see some background data.”
She said changing the parking along Main Street could be a short-term solution done in conjunction with the paving, while the conversion of the traffic flow might take longer and will be more involved.
“There are some big decisions the council is going to have to make,” Carter said. “Some things are going to be quite expensive. You will have to make decisions about that. Some things may not be popular. You’ll have to make some decisions about that.”
A two-way Main Street is not unheard of in Franklin. Main Street was two-way until 1956 when the town aldermen voted to make it one-way; in 1960 there was talk about returning to the two-way street, but it did not happen.