Study looks for ways to revitalize San Luis
Proposals to improve border city’s downtown, traffic situations sought
SAN LUIS, Ariz. — City Hall has joined with federal agencies in a study to find ways to revitalize downtown San Luis and improve traffic circulation in the area and around the city.
The study, done through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Making a Visible Difference in Communities program, focuses on what San Luis residents know as the primer cuadro, the stretch of Main Street immediately north of the border.
Part of the goal of the study is to improve the traffic circulation, both of the flow of vehicles traveling to and from Mexico and of those traveling between the east and west sides of San Luis, while maintaining customer access to businesses along Main.
Recent public hearings held over the course of two days in San Luis gave residents a chance to see recommendations made by officials from federal agencies that were involved in the study with the city, among them the General Services Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security. Those agencies all have a hand in staffing the U.S. port of entry in downtown San Luis.
Among the ideas was redirecting traffic from Mexico to segregate it from those of consumers who patronize the downtown businesses. At present the traffic
flows from Mexico onto 1st Avenue, but the proposal would reroute to 2nd Avenue or the farther east along Urtuzuastegui Street to 4th Avenue.
Part of the traffic congestion in the downtown area stems from agricultural labor buses that come to pick up and drop off workers who commute from Mexico to work in Yuma-area fields. One proposal calls for bus stops to be established on 2nd Avenue and on Urtuzuastegui Street to divert the buses from Main.
Residents also called for widening sidewalks along streets near the border such as Archibald Street and Avenues B and C, as well as establishing pedestrian crosswalks at 1st Street and Avenue D.
Also proposed are more bike lanes in and around the downtown, as well as along Juan Sanchez Boulevard, which serves vehicles traveling between the east and west sides of the city as well as vehicles arriving to and leaving San Luis via the State Route 195.
Residents attending the public hearings had a chance to share ideas of their own. Among them was Jesus Cervantes, a San Luis resident and civil engineer, who proposed rerouting Mexico-bound traffic along on a road on the far west side of San Luis, as a way to reduce traffic.
Currently, traffic destined for Mexico travels to the border along Archibald Street, one street over from Main. Rerouting the cars farther west, said Cervantes, would serve to reduce congestion on Main, and in turn improve traffic circulation between the east and west ends of San Luis.
San Luis resident Antonio Carrillo proposed free internet stations and a parking garage as options to make the downtown more attractive to visitors.
The consultant for the study, the Oakland, Calif., firm Community Design and Architecture, is recommending a site be established in the downtown for community events or public reunions, as a way to brand the area as a historic or community district.
The EPA launched the Making a Visible Difference in Community programs to help cities and town make improvements in neighborhoods hurt by pollution or economic distress.
Once the San Luis study is completed and the final report is released in March, the next steps will be to seek funding sources from the federal government and elsewhere to finance the recommended improvements, said Jenny Torres, community development director for the city of San Luis.
Bharat Singh, a consultant with the Oakland firm that is heading up the studies, said some of recommended improvements to improve traffic circulation in the city represent easy fixes, but those designed to facilitate cross-border traffic will depend on cooperation with Mexico over the longer term.