Title
South Main Street Update (B)
Explanation
Improvements to the South Main Street corridor have been the subject of discussions and planning exercises for a number of years in anticipation of the opening of Depot Park, the Cade Museum, the Power District, and other redevelopment opportunities in the area. During this period numerous milestones have been accomplished furthering the broad redevelopment goals for this area of Gainesville. Within the past several months significant changes to the area have occurred that directly impact the functional needs of the street. These include new commercial oriented businesses, the Depot Avenue streetscape and roundabout, siting of the Cade Museum, and the opening of Depot Park. With these recent improvements being fully realized, CRA Staff is prepared to advance the planning process forward so that the South Main Street corridor responds to its changing context and reflects its prominence as a gateway to Gainesville.
During the past several months CRA Staff has been meeting with individual stakeholders, businesses, and property owners located along South Main Street to solicit feedback in regards to their current and future relationship to the corridor. The information received compliments the work previously conducted related to surveying, traffic data gathering, façade grants, site inventory, community engagement, and user analysis. With the pending opening of Depot Park in August 2016 and the Cade Museum in the fall of 2017, CRA Staff is preparing to host a series of participatory community workshops in August/September to explore design alternatives that will support the project planning principles of: improving safety and connectivity, increasing parking opportunities, preparing the area as a destination with a unique identity, while addressing the accessibility, flow, and balance of the corridor.
Staff is working to advance the planning, design, and engineering process to ensure public safety improvement...
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