Charley Brinkmeier, left, and Mayor Bill Brandt took a downtown committee to the street this morning to explain parking and sidewalk options in the area. |
Committee picks downtown plan Aug. 11, 2009 The city of Antigo’s Springbrook and Downtown Revitalization Steering Committee voted today to recommend a Fifth Avenue design with parallel parking and a median through the center of the street running from Lincoln Street to Field Street.
The vote didn’t come easy, and it wasn’t unanimous at the morning meeting held at the Antigo Public Library.
“Some people leaving here are going to be mad,” Mayor Bill Brandt said as the vote was being taken. Members of the committee were divided on the parallel parking and median plan, angle parking and a mix of angle and parallel.
The state of Wisconsin is anticipating construction of a Highway 64 bypass of downtown Antigo in 2011, and as traditionally the case, the state will fund the repairs to the road at a 80 percent state and federal funding and 20 percent from local sources.
Aaron Willians from Schreiber/Anderson Associates of Madison explained the options to the committee and the gallery of representing a number of downtown businesses.
He said that all three of the options brought to the floor had “pluses and minuses” but at all costs he wants the city of Antigo to avoid what is called the “canyon effect” of an idle and uninteresting shopping district.
Williams explained the drawings of the plans, the areas set aside for bicycles, vehicles and pedestrians and the impact on commerce.
What was called an “asymmetric” concept drew interest because it would allow angle parking on the south side of the street, where the behind-store parking is the weakest, and parallel on the north, where retailers and businesses have developed back entrances off the municipal parking lots.
The committee and the gallery held an impromptu meeting on Fifth Avenue in front of the M&I Bank where the Schreiber/Anderson team had done markings to show the space requirements of the different options.
Returning to the library, there was more discussion and Robert Curran stressed that he had traversed the street and found 20 people who supported the angle parking concept.
But when the vote was taken the parallel plan won, a situation that will increase parking by 40 percent.
But the committee certainly does not have the final word.
While Brandt said that the committee’s input was important, it will be the decision of the Antigo Common Council that will set the downtown street design for decades to come.
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