Downtown Sidewalk Plans Eyeballed

Two different proposed plans for widening the elevated brick sidewalk and modifying parking in front of some Main Street businesses were reviewed by the Duluth City Council in work session Monday (March 25).

Both plans prepared by city staff would eliminate the brick triangular points that jut out into the 18 existing vertical parking spaces in front of businesses fronting on Main Street from The Farmhouse Home Décor & Gifts to Trish Land.

One plan would create 12 parallel parking spaces (22 feet by 10 feet). The other would eliminate parking in front of these stores.

The plan that allows the parallel parking spaces would have an 11-foot upper sidewalk and a lower four-foot sidewalk. The plan that eliminates parking spaces has a 20- to 21-foot upper sidewalk and a five-foot lower sidewalk.

Two sets of stairs would be added to provide additional access from the street to the stores in both plans.

A railing along a brick retaining wall on the upper level sidewalks would prevent pedestrians from falling onto the lower levels. The wall would be about 30-inches high on the West Lawrenceville Street end of Main Street and diminish to about 18 inches high on the other end of the businesses.

Under both plans, Main Street would remain two way. The plans were presented by Duluth Planning Director James Riker.

A wider upper sidewalk would allow for additional outdoor dining and activities as part of proposed downtown revitalization.

The mayor and council discussed the plans, but took no action. At the suggestion of Duluth City Manager Tim Shearer, the council agreed to continue to visit other cities and look at space allocated for outdoor dining more closely.

At one point in the discussion, Riker and Shearer unrolled 20 feet of a tape measure on the floor of the Community Room at Duluth City Hall to show the width of the larger proposed sidewalk.

The mayor, council and city staff toured Decatur in early March and plan to visit Roswell in April.