Ludington Boulevard?!

[XLFD]

On this year's Groundhog Day, I went to the Downtown Ludington Board's (Ludington's DDA) monthly meeting being held down in the basement at the Ludington City Hall at 3:30 PM.  After emerging from the subterranean conference 90 minutes later, seeing shadows of what would become Ludington's future, I could still mostly see the clouds and not the silver lining. 

If you have went to a city council meeting in Ludington you are either impressed or depressed about seeing how things are typically done.  The direction of what the town is doing as regards public policy has been determined either at the operations level with unelected and mostly unaccountable city management and department heads or at best, by appointed committees like the DDA and city council subcommittees that operate out of the general vantage point of the public.  By the time it gets to council, the discussions and determinations have already taken place by mostly unaccountable officials outside of mostly open meetings, and mostly everything is unanimously passed whether good or not. 

I had tried to be at the January DDA meeting, but was stymied because the newspaper, bulletin board and internet conspired to not post the notice for the meeting that was held on January 5, and stated it was to be held on the twelfth.  The city manager on the twelfth graciously noted that the official actions taken at that meeting would be re-enacted at this February meeting, so I had to go and see whether they would do just that.  The verdict is still out on that.

But two things came up at the meeting which I found of interest, two things of which you won't find in the newspaper until the day before the council unanimously votes for them, if at all.  I think they are worthy of discussion in a more public forum like the Ludington Torch well before they are a done deal.  This article will discuss the first.

The Remaking of the 'Wesco Block'

According to the City Manager, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has plans on tearing up the one block of Ludington Avenue between Robert and William Streets, aka the Wesco Block.  The stated purpose is to make the transition of travel that now 'shifts' at where the street becomes a boulevard (just after William Street going west where the street divides in two) be more gradual.  They have also decided the left turn lane is unnecessary there; this actually coincides with the concept of Ludington Boulevard, discussed later, and one wonders whether the MDOT originated the idea or the city leaders.

If you travel that route routinely, you probably don't even really notice the existing shift, but MDOT does.  They also want to reduce the number of unused curb cuts on the north side, and get the few parking spaces on that side removed in front of the old Red Door Gallery (in red in the picture below), contrary to what they wanted to do at the new Red Door location.

The MDOT proposes that they will effectively take out the existing road and put new road over the area, a nice new surface with markings to make the shift over easier, and shore up any curb cut that can't be justified, this will incur no city funds.  But they have extended the City the ability to put in infrastructure under the street, and perhaps put in something down the middle of the street to make that section a boulevard.

Shay admits that the water and sewer conduit under that section of street is about 100 years old and in need of replacing, so the City wants to at least take the opportunity presented to do that, which is very reasonable.  he also thinks the City should create a green island in the center not much unlike the boulevard area.  He cautioned that it needs to be acted on soon, the MDOT would need some decision in a little over a month.  He put up a price tag of about $60,000 for the City's part in this block which he labeled as block 2 of something he called Ludington Boulevard.

It was discussed for a little while at the meeting with no votes on it, and the members seeming to be compliant with the manager's ideas.  A schematic map with some numbers on it was passed out to the DDA members regarding the Ludington Boulevard project.  After the meeting, I did a FOIA request for the DDA packet of this meeting and got a little more information on Ludington Boulevard.

Ludington Boulevard:  Costly, Vague and Conceptual

The above diagram shows what the Ludington Boulevard Project entails.  Four downtown blocks scheduled to get some reworking to make Ludington Avenue (the horizontal street above) to look more sophisticated, sustainable, or resilient-- take your pick.  The handout does not necessarily show what the 'improvements' will be, but given the talk on block two, the black areas would be green zones. 

The cost of doing such work had already been figured out before the MDOT decided to help with block two:

This appeared to be the first time Ludington Boulevard was discussed, I haven't been able to find any other reference to it other than the very next day the Ludington Planning Commission reported in its minutes that at the DDA meeting:  "There was discussion about extension of the boulevard from House of Flavors to the east. The plan is very conceptual at this time, but the City is going to study the options." 

So the outlook appears to be that our leaders want to extend the green median towards the downtown, and are willing to pay good money for it-- even though the MDOT's work will cut the costs down for the second block.  The conceptual drawings admit no author, but does show the addition of green medians will cut down on a few parking spaces, primarily on block three, which currently allow parking along both sides of its length.  The median in the second block was admittedly going to make it more difficult to turn left into Wesco from the main street.

It's unfortunate that such a high-minded project will not invite the citizens of Ludington to weigh in on the analysis of whether this would be a good way to use public money.   If the City and or the DDA, which is an extension of the City, has hundreds of thousands of dollars to try such a project, why are so many other parts of the city's infrastructure suffering such neglect?  Are projects like these why the taxes and fees our citizens pay going up so dramatically, even when our available money might not be?

See more details here:  Ludington Boulevard Estimate.pdf

[AQUAMAN]

So, looks like what they propose is to close that middle turn lane between the yellow lines off? Then place another boulevard type situation between William St. and James St.? Lovely. Traffic isn't bad enough downtown in the summer months now, and they want that? That will bottle-neck the area even more. At least Shay is admitting the infrastructure is over 100 years old down there too, just like Dowland, and the rest of the town. All that infrastructure is a lot more important to replace, than any ideas like this imho. And there the city council and Mayor sit, and sit on their hands, decade after decade, and let come what may. Meanwhile, other marina projects and the west end project get the nod for more monies spent......real credits to our society. 

[XLFD]

With the amounts of times that section has been redid through the years, I was surprised that the infrastructure was so old underneath, but apparently Mr. Shay hasn't been the first city manager to ignore infrastructure needs of the community.  Recent failures of water utilities throughout the City should be an indicator of where to put the money, but in their minds, glory isn't given to those who replace and update conduits. 

[Willy]

Is this being considered because it is a safety situation or do they want to make the street more appealing. Again this is a perfect example of wasted tax dollars by the State and the City. Where is this money coming from? I thought the State didn't have enough money to repair the roads let alone add new construction. It never ends.

[XLFD]

The Boulevard project to my understanding is simply a cosmetic way to dress up the middle of the street.  I am not sure as to whether the MDOT were planning on redoing the second block anyway without any push by the city leaders, but they did offer the city the chance to do something other than what they had planned, which was simply to repave the street completely and not add in any bells and whistles.

The DDA has a lot of extra money thanks to their 2 mils and their 12% TIF, taken from the backs from the rest of the community through taxes. 

[stump]

Closing curb cuts in that high traffic area is a good idea. Those property owners must not be friends with Shay. [ Opening of a curb cut on south james ]