HILTON - If you have ever thought, "Boy wouldn't it be great if the village did …" now could be the best time to share your ideas. The Village of Hilton is working on a transportation plan focused on circulation, accessibility and parking to shape a vision for Hilton's Main Street area. Village officials have commissioned a three-firm study to review Hilton's downtown and entranceways. The majority of the study is being funded by a $50,000 grant from the Genesee Transportation Council. The village is contributing $5,000. To solicit some public feedback, the village (along with their three partners SRF and Associates, Steinmetz Planning Group and Ingalls Planning and Design) held a downtown design workshop on August 18 at the Village Community Center. The half-day session included a presentation on current findings and a time for participants to pound the pavement to identify challenges and opportunities for themselves. In the end, the village was left with many ideas that will lead to the formation of a list of short, medium and long-term goals. While some changes may be implemented within the next year, the study itself is scheduled to go until 2008. John Steinmetz wore two hats in the meeting as the head of Steinmetz Planning and as a West Avenue resident. "As a resident on West Avenue with two school age children, traffic speed is definitely a focus of mine," said Steinmetz. The group discussed concerns about excessive speeds posing a safety threat at entrances to the village and at crosswalks. Some possible solutions offered included reducing speeds, adding signs, adding speed bumps and creating visual cues like more appealing gateways. "When you do it right, you also create visual enhancement opportunities," said Steinmetz. At the start of the meeting, Steve Ferranti, from SRF and Associates, shared key findings to date. Ferranti said history is important to the village and downtown is looked at as an activity center. Traveling through the north/south corridors is congested and pedestrian safety is an issue. The availability of parking is the No. 1 issue for village merchants. Travel speeds are excessive entering and exiting the village and village gateways offer an opportunity for enhancement. Ferranti said going forward the needs of pedestrians would be a top concern. "Over the years we've focused too much on motorists with the goal being able to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible," Ferranti said. "In a village environment, the pedestrian is king." Hilton Mayor Larry Gursslin said residents can expect to see some additional safety measures in place in the near future. First, separate from the existing study, a traffic signal is scheduled to be installed at the corner of North Avenue and Main Street within the next six months. Gursslin also said the village will be able to act on inexpensive changes to village-owned property that may include additional signs and better highlighted bicycle paths. "We need to do more to look at how the pedestrian flow is in the village and to make people feel safe," said Gursslin, adding that some changes will require more time as village, county and state government will need to be involved. Data collection has been slowed by bridge construction at Lake Avenue and Manitou Road. The next opportunity for public input will be toward the end of January. In the meantime, the village is encouraging residents to send suggestions and questions to the village office to the attention of Walter Horylev, vice mayor. Gursslin said he would like to see more input from residents. "We're open minded to hearing other possible changes," he said. © September 2, 2007 - Westside News Inc. |
