Carson City RACC set for downtown design oversight

Downtown design won’t take a detour to consider two lanes, Carson City’s Redevelopment Authority Citizens Committee (RACC) was told Monday.

At a meeting to talk timing of the design period and the RACC role as a public forum for input and review, a new member asked about considering two lanes and angle parking along the west side of Carson Street downtown. He was told it isn’t in the cards.

“I’ll just tell you the consultant’s direction is not to look at it,” said Community Development Director Lee Plemel. “That’s not a scenario they are going to explore.” He said one of the reasons is the impact it would have on widening the sidewalks to encourage pedestrian traffic, though he did say discussions are under way with state officials on parking matters along Carson in front of state buildings.

But the Board of Supervisors previously adopted the three-lane format with bicycle lanes and wider sidewalks, the middle lane to handle left turns at some intersections.

The committee was told by staff now that detailed design is beginning, the RACC and Regional Transportation Commission will be public forums and review units though there are other ways to seek public input as well.

“We just had a kickoff meeting this morning with the design team,” Plemel said. He introduced to RACC members Danny Rotter of the Public Works Department, project manager, and Mike Bennett of Lumos Associates, an engineer with the lead design company. There will be a public “theming workshop” in mid-April, likely on April 14, which is for public input on such design details as color palette and other matters.

The 30 percent design stage is scheduled for June and a RACC session in July will be held to assess it at that stage. The timetable may change, but calls for 90 percent design in the September-November period and complete design by the end of the year.

There also was discussion about input from the city’s Cultural Commission and Historic Resources Commission, which included Ronni Hannaman, RACC chairperson, saying: “We’ve got to do it right this time.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Bennett replied.

The commission also voted to meet at least quarterly, rather than monthly, but have additional meetings when called for by workload. Quarterly meetings will be in February, May, August and November, but already the RACC has a session set up for July to handle the post-30 percent design work and to make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors.