City seeks input on Linoberg Street redesign

The City of Sonora is teaming with the Blue Zones Project Tuolumne County to host a series of public workshops next week that will gather ideas from the community about a possible redesign of the pedestrian-friendly area on Linoberg Street between South Stewart and South Washington streets.

“We want the community to get involved with what they want for the space,” City Administrator Melissa Eads said. “The community can then fund raise, while we can compete for grants from state and federal agencies to complete their vision.”

One of the proposals in the Vision Sonora Plan, which was approved by the City Council in December 2013, was for shutting down the segment of Linoberg Street to vehicular traffic and converting it into a pedestrian-only passageway.

The council voted to close the street for a temporary one-year test run of the concept in 2019, though that was extended and ultimately made permanent after the space became useful to help nearby businesses provide outdoor dining when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

A community survey about the future of Linoberg Street was released by the city on Feb. 16 and received more than 400 responses in less than a week. The survey can be completed online at www. surveymonkey.com/r/bkmlp2l or is available in physical form at City Hall, 94 N. Washington St., Sonora.

Some of the questions include what people like the most about the current space, what types of activities they would like to see take place there in the future, and whether they would support making it a designated smoke-free area.

Eads said the discussion will also include how the outdoor dining currently taking place on the street under pandemic-era exceptions should be handled by the city moving forward.

“We get a lot of compliments for the outdoor dining (on Linoberg Street), but also a lot of concerns about the equity of the outdoor dining and whether it’s preferential,” Eads said, though she noted that the establishments currently utilizing the space also help keep the areas clean, which offsets maintenance costs for the city.

There will also be discussion about a long-planned mural on the north-facing wall of the building that houses the Diamondback Grill, where there currently are banners promoting efforts to raise money for it.

The first public workshop is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Monday on Linoberg Street, which will include a site tour and question-and-answer session that will go until noon. A conversation with downtown business owners only is scheduled to take place that afternoon in the Blue Zones Project conference room or at a local business. There will also be a public presentation about the efforts at the City Council meeting that begins at 5 p.m. at City Hall.

A second question-and-answer session for the public will be held from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Tuesday on Linoberg Street, followed by a series of invitation-only meetings in the Blue Zones conference room through noon. There will also be a public open house event from 5:30 to 7 p.m. City Hall that night.

Blue Zones staff will host office hours for the public to provide additional input from 9 a.m. through noon on Wednesday, culminating in a joint public meeting between the council and Vision Sonora Committee from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at City Hall.