Recovery zones tweaked to allow traffic on Main, Maryland
Annapolis will tweak two of its business recovery zones on Main Street and Maryland Avenue this week to allow traffic through the area while restaurants and retailers operate on sidewalks.
The Public Works Department will install 13-foot-wide sidewalk extensions along the south side of Main Street sometime this week, said City Manager David Jarrell, leaving a 15-foot-wide travel lane for traffic to pass by. The extensions will be placed from Conduit Street up to the crosswalk at Capital Comics.
Main Street will have to be closed for about four hours to complete the installation, Jarrell said.
Since they were created last month, the recovery zones had been closed to traffic Thursday through Sunday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. for the last month. The change is meant to be a compromise for some retailers who say they rely on car traffic for their business.
Brian Bolter, owner of Red Red Wine and Dry 85 and the recovery zone captain for Main Street, said almost everyone in his section of the street approves of the change, though it will reduce the number of tables they can deploy. Several parking spaces on the far side of the street will be eliminated.
“We’re hopeful,” Bolter said. “In the end, we will lose tables from the shutdowns, which will hurt us economically. But what we will hopefully gain — as long as the mayor, and the city government stands by it and doesn’t take this away from us — what we will gain is every day having the ability to have outdoor dining.”
More sidewalks extensions could be added below Conduit Street in the future, Jarrell said.
Other recovery zones in the city, including Market Space, Fourth Street in Eastport, West Street and Forest Drive will remain unchanged.
Ron George, who has owned a Main Street jewelry store for 30 years, said the change is not enough. He purchased an advertisement in The Capital last week decrying the recovery zone and the negative impact he says it has on his, and other retailers’, business.
“It’s not what we’re calling for but it’s a step in the right direction,” George said of the new plan. “Main Street is 44 retail stores, restaurants are barely even 18 … This is wrong for Main Street.”
The sidewalk extensions are wood planking that the city originally had fabricated for the temporary bike lane pitched by Mayor Gavin Buckley two years ago, Jarrell said. The plan was scrapped after backlash from business owners, including George. The extensions have been used to good effect elsewhere in the city, including on Annapolis Street, he said.
Maryland Avenue will also be open to traffic, said city spokesperson Mitchelle Stephenson said.
The street in front of Galway Bay will be closed similar to partial street closures done at Buddy’s Crabs and Ribs and Latitude 38, which rope off about two or three parking spaces for outdoor dining, Stephenson said.