The board of the Old Farm District Neighborhood Association voted to recommend two street safety projects to the City of Bend. These projects are being considered under the new Neighborhood Street Safety Program (NSSP), which has allocated $800,000 to complete improvements suggested by citizens.
We are now entering the third phase of the program where the Neighborhood Leadership Alliance (NLA) – a committee formed from all the City’s neighborhood associations – ranks all the recommended projects.
First, citizens submitted their suggestions for street safety projects over several weeks. Then, the 13 neighborhood associations reviewed applications and each picked their top two. The City received 362 applications citywide – 263 were deemed eligible. In the Old Farm District, 30 applications were received and 15 eligible.
If a project was “not eligible” it may still be eligible for other funding sources, like the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). 11 of the 15 projects in the Old Farm District deemed not eligible were moved to other project lists.
The Old Farm District Neighborhood Association board built a modified application for its top recommendation: Pedestrian Safety in the Old Farm District. The City allowed NAs to repackage citizen suggestions – to clarify scope or combine multiple suggestions. In this case, the board combined several suggestions received via the NSSP and public comment. All applications dealing with crosswalks that were rated “eligible” were combined into one application and recommended for full funding under this program.
The Old Farm District was built to County standards and annexed into the City over 20 years ago. The board feels it is past time to bring this part of the City up to city standards and begin work toward increasing connectivity and making walking a safer, more comfortable, and more attractive option for getting around the neighborhood.
In addition to the crosswalk package, the board recommended as their second choice the purchase of a mobile radar platform. This will allow the board to more frequently request speed radar signs to be placed at key points in the neighborhood to remind visitors of safe travel speeds.
The NSSP was limited in scope so many desired and frequently requested projects – like paving the rest of Brentwood Ave or adding sidewalks on Brosterhous near 3rd Street – were just too costly for this program. The board remains committed to advocating for these other projects as well and appreciates continued public input on street safety projects.
The next step in the NSSP is for a City staff review to be completed by December 5th. Then, the NLA will complete its recommendations by January 31st, 2020.
Please contact the board with any questions or suggestions for other projects going forward.
If you have suggestions that were not included in the NSSP recommendations, no matter how big or small, “eligible” or not, consider submitting a Service Request with the City of Bend. In many cases, your ideas can lead to projects being completed! But, even when the idea doesn’t immediately translate to a project, it’s still important to get it on the record via this process. Let us know if you submit a request and we can help!
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