Rye Residents To Present Proposal for Forest Avenue Sidewalk

At the Rye City Council meeting Wednesday, residents will present a proposal to install a sidewalk along part of Forest Avenue. The group is immediately asking for a funding of a planning study. MyRye.com obtained a copy of the proposal scheduled to be presented to the council. See our earlier story.

The detailed proposal:

JUNE 10, 2015

RESIDENT PROPOSAL FOR SIDEWALK EXTENSION

SUMMARY OF PROJECT

We request an extension of sidewalks on Forest Avenue from Apawamis Avenue to Manursing Avenue and along Manursing Avenue from Forest Avenue to Davis Avenue to accommodate pedestrian traffic from the 15 streets and ~170 homes (excluding Manursing Way/Kirby area) blocked in by this portion of the double-lined throughways, as well as neighboring school children, dog-walkers and long-distance runners/walkers 

SUMMARY OF PROCESS

We attended monthly Rye Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Committee meetings since February to gain knowledge on historical project efforts

We initiated multiple conversations with City Planner Christian Miller to clarify costs, scope and feasibility of the project (3/3/15 emails, 4/24/15 phone conversation and 5/28/15 meeting)

We launched a door-to-door campaign on May 1st advising individual property owners abutting the proposed site of the project proposal and solicited their feedback directly by creating an email address ([email protected]) to document their responses

We spoke with the Mayor about the project on May 11th and he added the topic to the city council agenda

We launched a public petition May 15th to gauge general resident interest in the project

We used resident feedback (2 strong oppositions from our door-to-door campaign) in conjunction with feasibility input from Christian Miller to diminish the scope of the project dropping the North end of Forest Ave from the original proposal (i.e. Manursing Ave to Grace Church St)

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

As of June 5, we have gathered 361 signatures of support from Rye residents with 82 residents living within the proposed abutting neighborhood and 18 residents residing directly on the proposed site along Forest Ave and Manursing Ave

20 directly impacted neighbors in the revised scope responded to our email or signed our petition:

         18 support the initiative with the following caveats:

• 3 require speed issues to be addressed (e.g. reduce speed limit, add more stop signs)
• 2 only support if it is one-sided/minimally impacts their property line
• 1 only supports if run-off/drainage issues from path are properly studied and addressed

         2 oppose the initiative with the following concerns:

• 1 opposes changes to visual landscape of the road
• 1 opposes the amenity believing it is unnecessary (e.g. feels traffic on road not heavy, pedestrians can easily continue to use shoulder/grass patches)    

NEXT STEPS

In our meetings with City Planner Christian Miller, he explained he needs the city council to fund a study/survey of the site so he can estimate costs and evaluate viable options for the pedestrian path.  We request the city council approve funding for study and future implementation of the proposed sidewalk in 2015 or 2016 given the documented community support and clear neighborhood need for this capital improvement project.

Thank you,

Kelsey Johnson, Caitlin Layng, Juli Schmidt, Katie Schmitz, and Kristan Watson