A nine-month community effort has spawned a plan to make one of Placerville's major thoroughfares more pedestrian- and transit-friendly, and more attractive to prospective developers.
A recommendation for improving traffic flow, safety and aesthetics along Placerville Drive will be presented to the City Council for approval Tuesday.
Jerry Barton, a transportation planner with the El Dorado County Transportation Commission, said the goal is to redesign the street to make the city's western business district more of a destination, rather than a conduit for commuter traffic.
"It's a two-lane road, old highway-commercial (development), with a left-turn median throughout," he said, describing the current Placerville Drive corridor during a presentation to the Planning Commission earlier this week.
But city officials, and business and property owners, anticipate increased interest in development with the opening of a new bridge and roadway connecting Placerville Drive with the city's historic Main Street.
They have been working with consultants to come up with land-use guidelines and transportation improvements for the corridor.
The "multi-modal plan," developed by a consultant and an advisory committee of community representatives, outlines an estimated $5.2 million worth of improvements.
It calls for replacing the median turn-lane with a landscaped median and left-turn pockets the length of the corridor.
Bike lanes, sidewalks and transit stops also would be incorporated in an effort to reduce automobile traffic.
Barton said the initial recommendation was to widen all of Placerville Drive to four lanes, from the Highway 50 interchange at Forni Road to the new connection with Main Street.
But the consultant preparing the separate land-use plan argued that the wider roadway ran counter to the goal of encouraging destination- oriented development.
"The consultant felt a two-lane roadway would mesh better with the sense-of-place concept," Barton said.
The compromise was a recommendation to divide Placerville Drive into three segments:
• Four lanes from Highway 50-Forni Road to Ray Lawyer Drive.
• Two lanes plus on-street parking from Ray Lawyer Drive to Cold Springs Road. The on-street parking could be eliminated and the section converted to four lanes in the future if necessary.
• Two lanes from Cold Springs Road to Highway 50 and the new Main Street connector. Randy Pesses, public works director, said updated traffic studies indicated two lanes are adequate.
Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 608-7451.
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