2.0. HRSR 03-10-1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

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that downtown visitors will look for first, the aesthetics of the environ- ment will encourage them to linger, to walk over to a nearby shop, or to tell others about a place they enjoy. • Building and business owners must recognize the role they play in these improvements. They can address issues related to the buildings, creating interesting and viable spaces to walk past and into. Without this, no degree of streetscaping can create a meaningful environment for pedestrians. • In this plan, Walnut Street, River Street and Broadway are the streets that must maintain a strong edge — a streetwall that is at least 75% continuous. • Breaks in the streetwall that are occupied by parks, plazas or pedestri- an pass-throughs should not be included when calculating streetwall percentage. Streetwall—25% to 75% • Even when parking occupies that portion of a site that meets the side- walk, a sense of edge can still be achieved (although it will never be as strong as what can be accomplished with buildings). In these cases, a consistent and rather tightly-spaced row of trees with hedges or orna- mental railings can create the streetwall. In no case, however, should an entire block of downtown have less than 25% streetwall. • The way that streets are developed will be an important factor in establishing Traffic reasonable movement patterns in downtown. If we see a traffic problem in Monticello today, we must know that we can never solve it. Solving the prob- lem would entail more lanes, higher speeds and fewer conflict points (crossing movements) along with more asphalt, fewer pedestrians and less local charac- ter. The best we can do is manage traffic to fit Monticello, which involves allowing for more crossing points, placement of signals to aid in vehicle and pedestrian crossings of Pine Street and Broadway, striving for lower speeds and encouraging other modes of movement. The key street is Walnut Street and in this plan, it becomes a new "main street" for Monticello. It lies at the heart of an expanded downtown — a downtown reaching from the Mississippi River to Interstate 94. Many people already use Walnut Street as a way of moving through town without having to deal with Pine Street traffic. It parallels the main route through Monticello's downtown, and is close enough for drivers on Pine Street to see development that might occur there. It should be a pedestrian-oriented street, with on-street diagonal parking, buildings close to the street, wide sidewalks, trees and pedestrian- scale streetlights. Drive lanes should be limited to one in each direction, with each lane being no more than 14 feet wide. It should be designed to encourage traffic at speeds of 15 miles per hour, a speed that allows drivers to accommo- date pedestrians crossing streets. At this speed, traffic will flow because the _ vehicles have no stops between Seventh Street and Broadway. • , A New Bridge Revitalizing Mont/cello's Downtown and Rlver/ront • Page 3:21