A public information meeting about the Division/Church Corridor (Business Route 51) Study Project will take place on Wednesday, November 20 at Jefferson Elementary School (1800 East Ave). The meeting is scheduled from 5:30 PM to 7 PM and will be conducted in an open house format with a brief presentation at 5:45 PM. This meeting is open to the public, and attendees may arrive or leave at any time during the meeting.

This project should be of significant interest to Poky Pedalers because of the bike lanes proposed along Division, as well as several improved crossings of Division for bicycle traffic. Attending this meeting is an excellent way to learn more about these features, to make project staff aware of your support for these bicycling facilities, and to suggest further improvements for bicycle accomodations.

This will be the third public information meeting about the project, which only addresses the portion of the corridor within the Stevens Point city limits. If you are unfamiliar with this project, you can find links to all my past blog posts on this page. You can also find links to maps, presentations, and other information from the project website on this same page. If you want to learn what has happened since the last public information meeting in May, you can read my October status update post.

At past meetings, maps and other information were posted on walls, and project staff was available to answer questions. Comment forms were available to be turned in at the meeting, and comments could also be sent through e-mail or US Mail after the meeting. There is every reason to believe that the upcoming public information meeting will be conducted in a similar fashion.

Detailed block-by-block alternatives were identified by project staff by late September. At that time, stakeholder open houses were held to get feedback from individuals directly affected by the project, such as property owners along the corridor. A presentation of these alternatives was also made to the Board of Public Works at their October meeting. My understanding was that updates based on stakeholder feedback would be made to these alternatives for presentation at the upcoming public information meeting.

The project website currently has only the maps and information available as of that October Public Works meeting. These maps are likely useful for context in understanding the potential alternatives to be on display Wednesday. However, there may be some changes in design details presented at the upcoming meeting. At past meetings, presentation materials and maps were not available on the project website until after the meeting. I have no idea what project staff plans for making such information available, and I state all this simply to set expectations for those who attend.

Based on past comments from project staff, the project is still in the ‘detailed alternatives’ phase. The design details in this stage are very precise, down to the level of where curbs and driveways will be located, drawn on bird’s-eye photographic representations of the corridor. Multiple design options have been created to assess benefits and drawbacks.

After accumulating comments from the upcoming meeting, I expect the project staff will move into the ‘preferred alternative’ phase of the project. I would guess that another public information meeting about that preferred alternative will be held – maybe in late winter or early spring – and additional public comments will be solicited then.

Opportunities for Poky Pedalers to be heard about your desires for this corridor are dwindling. I certainly encourage attendance at the upcoming meeting to Speak Your Poky.

For lots more information about this project, including past PPSP posts and my letters of suggestions to project staff, visit the Division/Church St Corridor Study page under the Speak Your Poky menu bar item.

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