Heated sidewalks, solar street
City releases public feedback on Water Street development ideas
Imagine walking down Water Street 10 years from now. Traffic is now one-way only, with cars driving on photovoltaic pavement, passing by pedestrians on sidewalks heated geothermally, on their way to a music festival.
Those are a few of the ideas from St. John’s residents during recent sessions held by city hall to ask what people think the city should look like after a major infrastructure-replacement project is completed.
A string of public sessions wrapped up last month, and the city released its “What We Heard” report Wednesday. Coun. Dave Lane said he was encouraged by what he heard from the public, which was divided into several themes.
Primarily, said Lane, the most consistent message from the public is that Water Street should be more of a destination and less of a thoroughfare.
“It is a thoroughfare, and we have traffic moving in and out and through it,” said Lane. “But what people want, and see potential for Water Street to be, is a place for people. It’s a destination. People go there and they hang out and they do things together. That might be shop, it might be eat, it might be talk to each other, go to a festival.”
The city can look at underused space — vacant areas, for example — and upgrade them, he said.
Connected to that is the idea of Water Street as a flexible street — with uses and needs changing depending on the time of the year.
“In the summer, can we do more to enable businesses to have patios, put out shopping racks, things like that?” he said. “And in the winter, to make it as easy and efficient as possible to clear the snow and also to be protected from the weather in some way.”
Flexibility can also mean shutting down a section for a period of time for a festival or a pedestrian mall, said Lane.
Water Street’s entrepreneurialism is also important to the public, he noted.
“When you focus on business in terms of the street … what you’re doing is focusing on people and int e ra c t ions . When you have that happening, businesses can do very well. That’s why they’re on Water Street, because it’s a place where you can get that person walking by.”
A focus on business isn’t an academic problem, with businesses concerned about how long the infrastructure replacement will take, and how it will affect their operations. The plans are still not complete on a project the city hopes to begin next year, with winter just around the corner.
“Right now, the plan is proceeding as if we will have the final plans developed for the project by the end of February,” said Lane. “But there are other players, like utilities, and we have to put this to tender so we have to make sure we get the right construction group, contractors. I’m open to the possibility of waiting a year if we’re not ready — and what I mean by not ready, is I want to make sure internally at city hall we feel we have all the information we need, and we have the budget in place, and we have everyone on board.”