Tactical Urbanism Comes to Grand River Avenue
On June 6th and 7th, Bloomberg Associates and Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation held two public meetings, piggybacking on the Grand River Avenue Design Workshop facilitated by Dover, Kohl & Partners in April. Whereas April’s workshop used a charrette format to capture a larger vision from attendees, the recent meetings helped gather feedback on two specific redesigns for the 7-lane commercial corridor. Option A featured on-street parking, two travel lanes in either direction, a 10’ left turn lane and parking-protected bike lanes on the north side of the street. Option B had all of the same elements, but reduced the travel lanes down to one in either direction with a 24’ median running down the center. Overall, attendees were enthusiastic about the possibility of change coming to Grand River Avenue, citing its wide, speedy character as needing a traffic-calming design. People also were pleased that any changes would be implemented using tactical urbanism, which ‘tests’ concepts using paint and measuring community-specified metrics. One attendee mentioned that, “…testing out designs with paint on the street first sounds great compared to building and hoping for the best.”
To see the designs, please email or call Martha Potere using mpotere@grandmontrosedale.com or 313-387-4732 ex. 120