JOHN DAY – City officials and a trio of transportation consultants from Portland recently toured sites of interest – Strawberry View Estates, Ironwood Estates, Charolais Heights and the Industrial Park – with an eye toward improving the traffic flow as the area grows.

City Manager Peggy Gray, the city’s project management team and consultants from Kittleson & Associates, Inc. (KAI) of Portland made the trip. The group is considering ways to improve safety and traffic circulation on local street systems and increase walking and bicycling in the city through improved access and safety.

The KAI planners are following the goals in the Joint Transportation System Plan for John Day and Canyon City to guide the development of their John Day Local Street Network project.

“The project will guide the management of existing roadways, bicycle/pedestrian facilities and the design and implementation of future facilities (including subdivisions) for the next 20 years or longer,” Gray said.

City officials obtained a transportation management grant to hire KAI for the work. The grant, which came from the state Department of Transportation and the Department of Land Conservation Development, is for up to $65,971. The city is providing an in-kind match of $7,969 in staff time and materials.

KAI will prepare guidelines and make recommendations for the project management team, which includes Gray, Public Works Director David Holland, Mayor Bob Quinton and grant manager Cheryl Jarvis-Smith of Oregon Department of Transportation, Region 5, in La Grande.

The city also has a technical advisory committee – a requirement for the grant – to assist the team. The committee is composed of 13 people from various sectors of the community including: police, public works, planning commission, city council, school district, hospital and ambulance personnel, ODOT, bicycle advocates and Parks and Recreation Department.

“The tech advisory committee will review work products, and at the conclusion of the project they will make a recommendation at a joint workshop, to the planning commission and the city council,” Gray said.

At a Sept. 15 meeting in the John Day Council chambers, Matt Hughart of KAI led a review of the project goals and objectives and background information with the team and committee.

One goal is to add policies to the city’s Comprehensive Plan that will require developers, such as those building new subdivisions, to create local street connections to existing or planned streets, and an extension of local streets (via street stubs) to adjoining undeveloped properties, while being “sensitive to natural features, topography, the area’s rural character, and adjacent development.”

Another area of concern, which is covered in the grant, is sidewalk planning. The group considered possible projects, including sidewalks connecting Bridge Street to the Seventh Street Sports Complex, sidewalks leading from John Day to Humbolt Elementary School and street striping and sidewalks on Ford Road leading to the hospital. Other possible pathways, without sidewalks, were also discussed.

The main reason that the city applied for the grant, Gray said, was to address the street connectivity – particularly the links between existing streets and future developments. Planners also are looking at bicycle and pedestrian needs.

During the consultants’ next visit in October, they will meet with the group again and also will interview children to record the routes they use to get around town. At a later date, an open house will be held to hear public input.

The project planning is expected to be complete by June 2009.