| Through many community meetings and with the help of landscape
architects Sherry Pratt Van Voorhis, P.S., the Historic Hillyard
Partnership has designed a five-phase plan of action to take place over
the next 10-12 years. In the past, revitalization focus has always been
on the business district located on Market Street between Olympic and
Diamond, but the North South Corridor (NSC) project forced us to find
new focus within the same area. Our plan, submitted to the Hillyard
Steering Committee on June 30th and approved the same night, is detailed
below with a few minor changes. While reviewing what we have, it is
important to keep in mind that this is a concept. While we hope that the
plan proceeds as close to the plan as possible, certain items may be
added, deleted, or changed due to a variety of reasons that may include
but are not limited to actual survey information, available land,
current zoning, and of course, financial resources.
Phase One Details
Queen Avenue between Greene St. and Haven St.
The property behind and south of the Alaskan Tavern has been designated
for the Hillyard Heritage Museum by owners Mike and Marge Brewer.
Although the TE funds will not build a museum, we can use it to relocate
the four rail cars owned by the Brewers and Tom Heckler, from DOT land
to the property behind the Alaskan Tavern. Currently, the four rail cars
house the museums artifacts and serve as the current museum. What we
propose is to relocate the train cars and landscape the remaining
property into a park-like setting. A small information kiosk along
a brick walkway will be included. Furthermore, we propose to
improve Queen Street between Market St and Greene St. by using brick
pavers, giving a look similar to that of Wall Street in downtown
Spokane. The street would remain the same size but would include
sidewalks, curbing and on-street parking. Queen St. between Market and
Haven would be paved and would include new sidewalks and curbing.
The intersection at Market street would include bump-outs in the design.
Bump outs and brick pavers create visual awareness thus alerting drivers
that they are in a pedestrian area and to slow down. In addition,
low-level pedestrian friendly lighting will be installed as well as
trees and other landscape enhancements.
It's important to remember that many
plans over the last twenty years have been massaged into this one
design, and then split into phases that will cover ten to twelve years.
Our phase designation takes into account the repaving of Haven Street in
2006 as well as the upcoming north/south corridor.
The TE Application must be submitted to
the SRTC by September 9th.
The time schedule is as follows:
- SRTC Technical Scoring of
Projects
|
September 12-20,
2005 |
- TTC Meeting, Project
Selection
|
September 21, 2005 |
|
|
October 13, 2005 |
|
|
November 1, 2005 |
- Final Recommendations by
State
Transportation Enhancement Committee
|
January 2006 |
- Final Selections by
Secretary of
Transportation
|
February 2006 |
If you are
interested in learning more about the Hillyard Downtown
Revitalization Project, if you have questions, or if you would
like to become involved, we invite you to attend a Historic
Hillyard Partnership meeting. We meet the first Wednesday
of each month at 6:30 at the Northeast Community Center.
Our next meeting is Wednesday, September 7th.
We will also be
reviewing the project at the Hillyard Steering Committee meeting
this coming Thursday, August 25th. 6:30 at the Northeast
Community Center.
For additional
information please contact
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HDRP
Call for Support
The Historic
Hillyard Partnership is seeking letters of endorsement
for the downtown revitalization
project as part of the application process for the
Transportation Enhancement application. If you, your
business, group or organization supports this effort,
please take time to write a letter explaining how and
why this revitalization will be good for Hillyard.
Negative responses are also being requested. Please send
or email to:
Donna Fagan
Historic Hillyard Partnership
E 1523 Dalton
Spokane, WA 99207
donnamariefitz@hotmail.com
Please send these as soon as possible, the application
deadline is Sept 9, 2005. |
|
For
more years than I care to count, the Hillyard community has launched
many efforts to update, clean up and revitalize their community. Most
people who have been through Hillyard in the last twenty plus years
would agree it's a daunting task. Since the railroad pulled out in the
early 1980’s nothing much has changed – retail shops come and go,
restaurants struggle and the public service entities move to more
thriving neighborhoods. Time has left its mark; the narrow sidewalks are
in disrepair and lighting is insufficient for any feeling of safety in
the evening hours. In addition, Market Street, a major north/south truck
route, runs directly through the business district. The posted 20mph
peed limit is virtually ignored, making pedestrian traffic and retail
shopping nearly impossible. 