Council gets reports on downtown improvement project

LAKEPORT – On Tuesday, Lakeport City Council members and community residents heard an update on the second phase of the city's downtown improvement project, an effort meant to make the city's historic downtown more inviting to businesses and visitors alike.


Cathy McKeon, project manager for Ukiah-based Rau and Associates, and Bill Harris of Harris Design gave the presentation, which took place before the regular council meeting Tuesday evening.


McKeon said downtown improvement projects bring significant benefits to many communities by enhancing the area's image, increasing property values and safety, and reducing maintenance costs.


Phase two of the project includes Main Street from Martin to Third streets, all of First Street and Second Street from Main Street to the lake, and a portion of Park Street between First and Third streets, she explained.


Lakeport's downtown has been an important venue for community events for a long time, Harris explained. He showed several historic pictures of the downtown, including a parade welcoming back World War I veterans.


Some key design elements on Main Street will be retaining parallel parking, and adding corner bulbouts and landscaping, including new streets trees, he said. There also will be stamped concrete, new waste receptacles and benches, newspaper racks, and new curbs, sidewalks and gutters.


Harris said the bulbouts and crosswalks will help slow traffic in downtown.


The project's first phase – Third Street from Main to the park, and Park Street from Second to Third streets – was completed in 2008.


Harris discussed the three zones of city sidewalks – storefront, throughway and curbside – and explained that street trees compose the “single most important element” in a streetscape.


Street trees are highly visible, providing shade and making the area more pedestrian friendly. Harris said the trees the city plan proposed for Second Street down to the lake were endowment maple and upright ginkgo, which are tall and narrow.


“We think that those are excellent choices for the streets, primarily Second in this case, where we want to maintain that view of the lake,” said Harris, noting that the trees' fall color will frame the lake.


For Main Street, other trees would work better, including Zelkova green vase and frontier elm, which will grow tall and have vase-shaped, leafy canopies for shade.


Councilman Bob Rumfelt said he has been opposed to the street trees proposal all along, especially since the city is spending a lot of money on its facade improvement program and new streets lights.


Previous street trees were removed to make way for those lights, he said, a process which opened up the fronts of the stores.


“And now we're talking about putting in more trees to block those storefronts,” he said.


Harris said he understood Rumfelt's concerts, but said that if a person considers any downtown area they can see the benefit of street trees.


Other street tree selections were red sunset maple and crape myrtle, with the latter being used as a flowering accent at streets corners. The vase-shaped canopy trees, said Harris, would not obscure the fronts of buildings, and would be pruned and cared for to keep their shapes.


Council member Suzanne Lyons questioned why those trees were selected, since she remembered from community meetings that the chanticleer pear was chosen. Redevelopment Agency Director Richard Knoll said the trees Harris discussed were included in the city's original plan, but Lyons insisted the chanticleer pears were the chosen trees.


Harris said the chanticleer pear is a smaller tree. He noted that the city isn't locked into element decisions.


“We're not here to present a plan. We are at the very beginning of our process,” Harris said.


He went over street furniture, tree grates, information kiosks and bicycle racks, bus shelters, new paving – including permeable gutters – and ornamental bulbouts with landscaping and public art.


One existing downtown element that Harris suggested the council might want to keep is a low wall in front of the courthouse museum, noting that it had been there for decades.


There also are special opportunities for big changes to the downtown, including widening the sidewalks, he said. “The entire street is going to be rebuilt.”


Lakeport's Main Street sidewalks are rather narrow – about 10 feet wide at most. Harris said they could narrow the traffic lanes from 14 feet to 12 feet in width; 12 feet is the same dimension as freeway traffic lanes. They would assess turning movements on streets to make sure trailers and motorhomes could navigate the change.


The city could also take the opportunity to create a civic spine between the courthouse park and Library Park, using palm trees in bulbouts in order to create a connection to the large palms surrounding the city's historic Carnegie Library, Harris said.


Harris presented the idea of creating a civic plaza on Second Street near Lakeport City Hall, with special landscaping and design. He showed an illustration of how the street could be closed down and used for special events.


To delineate the downtown, Harris suggested an “entrance gateway” in the area of Martin and Main streets, with a possible public art installation in an island in the middle of the street.


McKeon said such entry treatments also cause people to slow down as they're driving, because it alerts them that they're coming into more of an urban environment.


They also discussed options for turnaround areas for boats and trailers on Third Street.


McKeon said they were aware of the inconvenience and complexity involved in such building projects, and they plan to communicate with property owners and merchants, and have regular meetings on the work.


The ultimate goal, McKeon said, is that when construction is done, Lakeport has a project that services the community better.


Councilman Roy Parmentier said he doesn't want to see street trees in parking areas, which was one of the design options. He also said he hated seeing big bulbouts because of concerns about drivers getting around them with boat trailers.


“Some of them don't drive as well as they think they do,” he said.


Knoll said there were still more issues that they didn't have time to discuss, and that they would be presented in written form to the council in order to get additional feedback so the engineers can proceed.


Community members who commented on the plan liked the ideas of the palm trees, making the area more traffic friendly and trying to keep parking spaces.


Another meeting on the plan is scheduled for June 23, Knoll said.


Update on park, sewer plan accepted


The regular council meeting convened at 6:15 p.m.


During public comment, Dennis Rollins of the Westside Community Park Committee gave the council an update. He said he and Charlie Jolin took City Manager Margaret Silveira out for a tour of the park earlier that day and showed her the plans.


“I was very impressed,” Silveira said.


Ruzicka and Associates has donated about $13,000 worth of design work for the park, Rollins said.


The committee has been approved to use inmate labor for weed-eating and removing erosion control wattles, he said.


Rollins said a fundraiser, “Grillin' on the Green,” is planned for Aug. 7 at the park. It will include live music, tours, beer and wine concession, and an area for children.


In other business, the council approved applications for a number of Lakeport Main Street Association events, as well as a request for a Nor Cal Boat and Ski Club event.


The council unanimously approved the city's Sewer System Management Plan, presented to the council two weeks ago during a workshop.


Councilman Ron Bertsch said the plan has 18 sewer system projects totaling $5 million. He asked if by approving the plan they were approving all of those projects.


The answer was no, said city staffer Dan Buffalo.


The projects need to be addressed in the future, he said. “By adopting the plan now you're saying, we recognize that.”


The plan will undergo continual revision because it must be addressed every five years, Buffalo said.


The council also approved agreements with RGH Consultants Inc. and Pavement Engineering Inc. for materials acceptance testing and an independent assurance program for the Forbes Street Overlay Project.


City Engineer Scott Harter said the services, which are required because the project is being funded by federal money, are 100-percent reimbursable.


City Public Works Director Doug Grider received approval to purchase a new $5,900 pool cleaner for Westshore Pool, but the council directed the funds be taken from the pool budget, not from Measure I sales tax revenues.


With the budget process right around the corner, Silveira asked that the council push back a budget meeting from May 25 to June 8.


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