State-Journal.com - Group wants major changes to downtown

Photo By submittalThis photo from the 1940s of St. Clair Street shows two-way traffic, parking on each side of the street, shoppers and businesses. All of that disappeared when the street was closed off and the area was made into a mall.

Photo By submittalThis undated photo shows Main Street as a two-way road. It was changed to one-way in the 1960s. It was changed to one-way in the 1960s.

More parking and converting Main Street back to two-way traffic are high-priority issues for a group of downtown property owners.

The group without a name so far - led by John Gray - is putting together a plan for revitalizing historic downtown Frankfort. It meets weekly at Paul Sawyier Public Library.

The group will have a public meeting 6 p.m. Feb. 25 at the library to discuss its proposals.

Gray says hundreds of cities across the nation are switching one-way streets to two-way to improve downtown commerce.

Studies have shown that two-way streets help businesses, slow traffic, make it easier to drive around downtown and create a safer environment for pedestrians and bicyclists, Gray says.

He says he read where Vancouver, Wash., did a changeover in 2008 in the midst of a severe recession and Main Street made an astonishing comeback almost immediately.

Twice as many vehicles drive Vancouver’s Main Street every day without traffic jams or serious congestion, and merchants are happy, Gray says.

“You read all these other success stories of small towns like Frankfort and try to get some idea of things they’ve done to turn things around,” Gray says.

“The first thing almost everybody looks at and addresses is parking and traffic flow. When people have the perception that your downtown is difficult to get around in and there’s no place to park, that’s a disincentive to come downtown.

“You have to make it worth the trip and you’re not if people can’t find a place to park and they have a difficult time getting around.”

The downtown property owners’ group in Frankfort also proposes:

>Two hour parking on the west side of the 300 block of St. Clair.

>Converting 15 and 30-minute spaces to two-hour.

>Allowing two-hour parking in front of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches, and the Watts Federal Building.

>Enforcing two-hour parking limits from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday on Broadway and Main from Ann Street to Washington Street; and on St. Clair from Main to Broadway.

>Getting something done regarding the city’s vacant and condemned St. Clair parking garage.

>Pursuing a grant to improve signage.

>Offering empty and unused buildings to potential investors and converting upper floors to residential units.

>Recruiting restaurants and specialty shops.

Along with Gray, members of the group include Robert Polsgrove, Nash Cox, Joe and John Dunn, Craig Potts, Scot Walters, Jen Williamson, Brent Sweger and Natalie Wilkerson.

Downtown Frankfort Executive Director Kelly Everman said her board of directors met in an all-day retreat last Sunday to plan for 2010.

“Our priorities are not very different from what this group has brought up, with an exception or two,” Everman said Friday.

“Parking is always of interest to Downtown Frankfort. Parking spaces are valuable and we are very much in support of the enforcement issue.”

She said Downtown Frankfort recently met with Police Chief Walter Wilhoite to encourage stronger parking enforcement.

“We have found a lot of homesteaders, people who sit in a space all day,” Everman says. “The city is committed because they realize parking spaces that stay filled all the time do not encourage people to come downtown and shop.”

She says parking on one side of the bricked street on St. Clair would also be nice.

“We would welcome any new parking spaces,” Everman says. “High on our wish list is to get the St. Clair parking garage up and running again.”

Regarding the proposal to make Main Street two-way again, Everman says her board is willing to discuss traffic flow issues.

With a two-year construction project for a new $29 million judicial center scheduled to begin this summer, “we certainly think it’s perfect timing to discuss better traffic flow downtown,” Everman says.

“My board agrees it is definitely something we would like the city to talk about. We don’t consider ourselves experts in traffic flow but it seems to us now would be the time to talk about it.

“We’re going to need ways to alleviate congestion downtown, especially with construction going on.”

Everman says Downtown Frankfort and the Frankfort Tourist Commission are partnering with the city to apply for a grant for “way-finding signs.

“City grants writer Rebecca Hall is leading that effort. Signage to downtown and around downtown needs help, so this is one of the ways we can address that issue.”

Everman says the Capital Community Economic/Industrial Development Authority is rewriting its mission statement to include downtown as a “viable option for recruiting development.

“We are pulling together a joint meeting (Feb. 24) to talk about economic development including downtown.”

CCEIDA, tourism, chamber of commerce, Downtown Frankfort, and city and county officials will attend, Everman says.

“With all these groups at the table, I really feel we’re going to make some headway.”

And these downtown property owners have made investments in the community, “so I welcome when they get together and talk about things that matter.

“And I welcome it even more when we can all sit down and talk together because I think we can get a lot more done.”

Franklin County Magistrate Phillip Kring, whose family owns Mitchell’s Clothing Store on Broadway, says he thinks adding parking spaces in the 300 block of St. Clair would be good.

Kring also would like to see a return to slanted parking spaces on Broadway with one lane of traffic on each side of Broadway rather than two lanes. He says slanted parking on one side of the 300 block of St. Clair could also work.

He thinks it would also help traffic flow for drivers to be able to turn left at the intersection of St. Clair and Broadway.

As far as making Main Street two-way, Kring says, “I don’t know if it would help or hurt but I don’t see any reason not to look at the issue.”

And Kring says he has mixed feelings about enforcing two-hour parking.

“It can be a double-edged sword,” Kring says. “It’s bad when one of your customers gets a ticket or tourists go to the history center, then walk around to shop and go to a restaurant. If they get a ticket they’ll probably not want to come back downtown anymore.

“I think it should be selective parking enforcement where police keep an eye on people who are abusing it everyday.”