Ten years ago, a team of professionals from across the country — the Regional Urban Design Assistance Team — assessed the city and created a downtown revitalization plan.
“Considering the fact that (the RUDAT proposal) is 10 years old, and half that time we’re in the so-called Great Recession, I’m absolutely amazed by the accomplishments the Springfield community has made given the economic challenges we’ve faced,” said Jim Bodenmiller, city manager.
Bodenmiller cited projects inspired by the plan, including breaking the city into districts, making downtown pedestrian friendly and National Road Commons park. The biggest successes are developments off North Street, Ohio Valley Medical Center and Springfield Regional Medical Center.
After some initial cost estimates and committee meetings more than a year ago, not much has been done about the suggestion to convert the city’s one-way streets back to two-way streets, a plan that some in downtown believe could help propel the resurgence of the area.
“What’s holding us back is I have not made a formal recommendation to the city commission,” Bodenmiller said. “It involves money we don’t have. We can only move forward if we could achieve some form of funding assistance through grant dollars, and it just hasn’t been available.”
Bodenmiller said the conversion — which would include High Street, Main Street, Fountain Avenue and Limestone Street — could cost between $2.5 million and $9.1 million, depending on if the city chooses to repave and do streetscaping along with the conversion.
Bodenmiller said the base cost of $2.5 million would include changing the light signals, painting the street and doing turn signals. The city has also looked at the possibility of just doing two streets, such as High Street and Main Street, which would still cost at least $667,000.
Bodenmiller said while he is personally interested in the project, it may not come to pass.
“The city and commissioners are involved in so many projects, all of which are extremely positive, and this one has not ridden to the surface as the most important project,” he said.
However, local businesses downtown depend on the flow of traffic to attract visitors.
“Some of the things we’ve learned through the study is that other communities that have switched to a two-way street system saw an immediate positive response in economic development, especially in retail development,” said Maureen Fagans, executive director of the Center City Association.
Fagans said more retailers are interested in a downtown location, but they’re concerned about being on a street with one-way traffic.
“And if you think about it, traffic in one direction means they have visibility in one direction,” Fagans said. “So retailers who depend on being visible and being able to attract people into their store by way of their signage, by way of store fronts, that’s a compromise for them.”
Samuel Beloff owns Rose City Fine Jewelry and Loans on 26 N. Fountain Ave. and is the co-chair of the Downtown Business Alliance. To him, two-way streets are a must to small businesses looking to thrive downtown.
“It’s kind of magical how two-way streets can reveal vacant retail space that’s been invisible,” Beloff said. He said that changing the roads should be in the top five priorities for bettering downtown.
“We know the state has no money to do this, but that’s a temporary condition,” Beloff said. “No one anticipates standing here five, 10 years from now and still being in the same economic downturn that we’re in,” he said.
Many residents, interviewed as they walked downtown’s sidewalks, did not think it made much of a difference whether the streets were one-way or two-way.
Sheila Pettiford, of Springfield, said she would support the two-way street conversion, “if we were stable enough for it and it wouldn’t hurt anything more important we need to do. It would be my last choice to do.”
Other people, such as John Emerich, who has lived in Springfield for 45 years, think it may be worth doing. “There’s not that much traffic downtown to necessitate one-way streets,” he said. “It’s hard to direct newcomers.”
While the two-way street conversion may be a ways off, Bodenmiller said there are some upcoming developments based off the RUDAT proposal from 10 years ago. The city has focused on streetscaping — new pavement, curbs, gutters, street lights, etc. — on downtown’s streets as suggested by the plan, and are preparing to continue that from Veterans Bridge down Fountain Avenue through Main Street.
And Bodenmiller said the city hopes to build a parking facility that would include retail on the corner of Fountain Avenue and Columbia Avenue.
The city is also in the design engineering phase of a Veteran’s Bridge upgrade that will occur in the summer of 2015.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0371 or emason@coxohio.com.
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