Public chooses several options in Great Streets public sessions

After a series of Great Streets visioning sessions for Manchester Road in November, the planning team behind the project held another week of sessions to gather public input.

Officials from the East-West Gateway Council of Governments, along with consultants, held several 2-hour polling sessions in each of the five cities along the proposed route during the week of Dec. 7. At the sessions, residents were asked to choose options pertaining to the design of the roadway, speed limits and spacing, public transit options and locations of future business and residential areas. 

Terry Freeland, the project manager from East-West Gateway, said at this phase there are no design plans in place and that public opinion is being gathered in order to formulate a master plan for the project.

Project consultants currently are considering a variety of designs for Manchester Road within the cities of Manchester, Winchester, Ballwin, Ellisville and Wildwood. Options include a multi-way boulevard, which would consist of the main thoroughfare and two side streets for easy access to businesses without disrupting traffic on the main roadway. Backstreets that parallel Manchester, which currently exist in parts of the corridor, and connecting parking lots also are viable options. 

The poll allowed residents to choose different options for different cities as some options may not be feasible in all places along Manchester Road. For example, while businesses are set further back from the roadway in Wildwood, making a wider boulevard possible, in Manchester, historic buildings and businesses are set near the road, making it difficult to widen the roadway.

Bike lane options also were presented. Freeland said “Great Streets” are meant to not only better the roads themselves, but to provide pedestrian and public transit options in order to make streets more people-friendly.

“Manchester Road may not seem like a street you’re going to want to walk across today, but the idea is to think about the possibility in the future,” Freeland said.

Although Metro, the area’s public transportation system, has temporarily restored bus service to the area, future service is threatened due to lack of funding. In the visioning screening, residents were asked to assume Metro would find a way to not only permanently restore cutbacks, but add new possibilities such as bus rapid or light rail in the future. 

Although the results for the second round of polling are not expected to be completed until after the holiday season, light rail already appears to be a favorite option among those who already have participated.

Aside from answering questions in the poll, residents played a chip game which allowed them to place where businesses and residential areas might be in 2030, based upon projected market demand. Currently, 70 percent of the business space within the corridor is either vacant or is not retail, thus not generating sales tax revenue. Freeman said the retail rate is expected to remain flat for at least the next 20 years in the area.

“There really hasn’t been much in the way of growth on the retail end,” Freeman said. “Shopping centers are being swapped around town, but overall it remains flat. It’s a sobering reflection of the economy.”

Results from the first round of surveys are posted at gateway.org/manchester; however, that survey is still open as well as the survey that was conducted at the December vision sessions. 

In the first round of surveys, back streets and a multi-way boulevard were favored as street design options. All methods of public transit, including the possibility of a community-funded street car, received equal votes. Bike paths received a neutral response. When asked what Manchester Road should evolve into, an overwhelming majority said they wanted it to mimic what can be found in Kirkwood.