A proposal to add parallel parking along Riverside Avenue and Forest Street in Brooklyn and also reconfigure a stretch of Monroe Street is the topic of a special meeting set for July 23 at City Hall.
Jacksonville City Council member Jimmy Peluso called the meeting and is a supporter of the project, which would eliminate traffic lanes from all three streets while increasing protections for pedestrians and bicyclists.
The meeting, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in the Lynwood Roberts Meeting Room, will include an open house in which participants can see project plans and speak with city officials, a presentation and a public comment session.
In Brooklyn, parking would be added along both sides of Riverside Avenue from the Acosta Bridge to Forest Street. On-street parking also would be added on both sides of Forest Street from Riverside to Park Street.
The change would turn both streets from six lanes to four.
For Monroe Street, the proposal is to eliminate one traffic lane of the three-lane street and add bicycle lanes to each side between Interstate 95 and Jefferson Street. The street currently is one-way running east but would be switched to two-way.
For Brooklyn, Peluso said the new design would benefit businesses in the district by providing additional parking while also making it more walkable and bikeable by slowing down traffic. Peluso’s District 7 includes Brooklyn.
“For Alder & Oak and others, there’s no better way to help their businesses thrive,” Peluso said, referring to the main restaurant in The Hub Brooklyn complex at 400 Riverside Ave.
Renderings show bicycle lanes along the sides of both Riverside Avenue and Forest Street, with a buffer between those lanes and the new parallel parking areas. According to meeting materials provided to the Daily Record, the new configuration is designed to create more distance between the sidewalks and traffic while also providing better protection for cyclists.
Reducing traffic from six lanes to four is designed to make it less difficult for pedestrians to cross the streets.
Plans for Forest Street also call for the addition of a pedestrian crosswalk at Magnolia Street. Currently, there are no protected crossings for pedestrians between Riverside Avenue and Park Street.
Peluso said the project is in the planning stage and that changes suggested in public comments would be considered.
Results of a traffic study on the effects of the project are scheduled to be discussed at the public meeting.
Peluso said the Brooklyn project was a scaled-down and less costly version of a previous proposal that would have included traffic-calming devices such as roundabouts to further slow down vehicles.
“It’s just paint,” he said of the current proposal. Details about the projected cost and timeline of the project weren’t available, but Peluso said simplifying it would allow it to be completed “relatively quickly.”
Peluso said he anticipated that the project could cause grumbling among people “who don’t live in that area and use those streets only to get to and from work,” but believed irritations would fade and that the reconfigured streets would provide substantial benefits for Downtown businesses and residents.
“Providing a better quality of life is something that I as a Council member have made a huge priority,” he said.