Politics & Government

FO Blvd. Plan To Address Lighting, Pedestrian Safety

Phases also call for crosswalks, bike lanes, gateway monuments.

The long-debated will address resident and business owner concerns including more lighting and better pedestrian and bicyclist safety, county planning officials said Wednesday in Carmichael.

Plans call for Fair Oaks Boulevard, the main thoroughfare in town, to be redeveloped in phases, ensuring better traffic flow with the first phase out to bid, officials said during a workshop at the .

"I've been coming out to Carmichael for about eight years on this project and it's nice to be here and say we're going to move dirt," said Steve White, a senior civil engineer with the Sacramento County Department of Transportation.

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The corridor plan, which was approved by the county Board of Supervisors in September, has an overall goal of the plan is to facilitate development of a pedestrian-oriented town center for the Carmichael community including a main street design, officials have said.


"Main street" efforts are moving forward with Phase I and Phase II improvement projects for sections of the Fair Oaks Corridor Plan corridor area, including new gateway monuments, and major pedestrian, bicycle and roadway enhancements planned from south of Landis Avenue to Engle Avenue. The Phase 1 project is currently out to bid and Phase 2 is expected to start construction in 2014, officials said.

Find out what's happening in Fair Oaks-Carmichaelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

At Fair Oaks and Marconi, no new lanes are planned, White said. The right turn lane from southbound Fair Oaks to Marconi will be replaced as crews upgrade the traffic signals and ramps.

Bike lanes and landscaping will be added as will a bus turnout near the Arco-ampm gas station. Phase I will extend about 400 feet out from the Fair Oaks-Marconi intersection, except for Palm Drive (opposite Marconi), which would see a bike lane added to Panama Avenue.

Nine-foot-high gateway monuments will be placed in each of the four scheduled phases to serve as signs welcoming people to Carmichael.

"They will give the area an identity and a sense of place that represents the past and the future," said Jim Shubert, a senior landscape architect for county transportation's landscape design and tree section.

County officials will open the bid process on Feb. 23 and Phase I will be funded with $1.1 million in developers fees, White said. Phase II will cost about $5 million, with and $1 million from the county.

Phase II, from Landis to Engle avenue, which includes the and , will see separate sidewalks with landscaping replace the turn lane. A traffic signal and crosswalk will be put in at Landis, preventing pedestrians from having to run across traffic as there is currently no designated crosswalk.

Lights would be synchronized from Landis to Lincoln Avenue, said Patrick Carpenter, principal civil engineer with the county's design section.

Supervisors had considered a four-lane design on the boulevard as well as a six-lane one before deciding a four-lane hybrid would work best, said Tricia Stevens, a county planner.

Residents and Carmichael planning officials said they want to improve pedestrian safety and called for electrical wires to be moved underground but most praised the changes on the way.

"I love this community and want to be able to ride my bike in this area," said Esteban Nava, Carmichael's honorary mayor and a SMUD employee. "This is going to be a model corridor."

The county has a bike lane master plan that could later address continuous lanes down the boulevard from central Carmichael to Arden Way.

Several business owners and community leaders attended the meeting, including Curt Pearson, teaching pastor at at Fair Oaks and Grant Avenue.

"It's been a long process (for the corridor plan) but we're finally getting it done," Pearson said. "We're excited."

Wednesday's workshop was hosted by the Planning Division of the Sacramento County Community Planning and Development Department and the Carmichael-Old Foothill Farms Community Planning Advisory Council.

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Contact Tricia Stevens at stevenst@saccounty.net or 874-2926 or Surinder Singh at singhsu@saccounty.net or 874-5462 for additional information about the corridor plan. Contact Steve White at whitest@saccounty.net or 874-5354 for additional information pertaining to the proposed streetscape improvements.


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