[OldNorth] Fifth Street Progress

[Bruce Winterhalder]

Dear Members of the City Council & the City Manager
(Davis, California)

I have attached, and have copied below, a letter on behalf of the Board
of the Old North Davis Neighborhood Association.  Please read and
consider it, with our best wishes,
	Bruce Winterhalder (ONDNA)



09/11/05

To: Jim Antonen, City Manager

Ruth Asmundson, Mayor

Members of the City Council (Greenwald, Puntillo, Saylor, & Souza) 


From: Bruce Winterhalder & the Board

Old North Davis Neighborhood Association


Re: Fifth Street Redesign


The August break has passed and fall is nearly upon us. It is a good
time to recall the action taken by City Council on Fifth Street this
last 12 July, 2005. After lengthy discussion and public commentary –
indeed after two years of debate, consultant reports, commission reviews
and neighborhood study study and lobbying – Council approved on 4-to-1
vote a resolution authored by Don Saylor. It reads, as transcribed from
the video: “I move we direct staff to develop a plan for Fifth Street
that incorporates the following elements:


              * bicycle route and network connectivity;
                
              * improved pedestrian safety at crossings;
                
              * reduced effective speeds; 
                
              * protected left turns; and
                
              * staff should seek grant funds to implement this plan.”
                


It was not mentioned in Saylor's resolution, but we believe in the
spirit of the discussion that such a plan for Fifth Street not endanger
the tree canopy that lines the section to be redesigned. Saylor's motion
is straightforward; it ended a long, contentious evening.


We wish to note that Saylor's resolution encodes the design objectives
of the ON proposal for Fifth Street, and it establishes minimum design
guidelines for any alternative proposed by Public Works. Notably the
design must include bike access through extension of the current
network, pedestrian safety measures at crossings, effective speed
reduction and protected left turns. 


We now would like to work with the City and Public works to determine a
timetable that will quickly and effectively implement the Saylor motion.
We suggest a meeting between the City Manager, representatives of ON and
Public works. This might best be arranged by the City Manager. We look
forward to your reply.



-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Fifth2 11 Sept 2005.rtf
Type: application/rtf
Size: 5597 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/oldnorth/attachments/20050913/6f956fe9/attachment.rtf>