About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (July 13, 2011)
The Athens-Clarke County Leisure Services Department Invites You to Celebrate... 36\Lf is NATIONAL PARK AND RECREATION MONTH RGMLCM 6AN0ERADDUE Fri. & Sat., July 15 & 16 9-11 pm Sandy Creek Park S8 ACC resident and $12 non-resident Pre-registration required by calling 706-613-3615 RORSICUES £EE) [msasanis Saturday, July 16 Lay Park Playground Free popsicles from 10:00 11:00 a m. Free! 706-613-3625 W Saturday, July 16 3-5pm Lay Park Pool S 1 per child. Pre-registration required by calling 706-613-3596 03 'JUkYJROOUBARffli 4l 4^ 4^ 4^ www.athensclarkecounty.com/leisure O < 2455 Jefferson Road in Homewood Hills 706.546.0840 Open at 2pm M-F • 12pm Sat Wednesday KARAOKE & DRINK SPECIALS 9pm Thursday BLUES NIGHT with THE SHADOW EXECUTIVES 8:30pm Friday July 15 WILDCARD 9:30pm Saturday. July 1C BREATNLANES 9:30pm 'Poof' Tree Popcorn • %keho^ facebook.com/OfficeAthens THGIS,69 Half Marathon ^ 13.1 Are You Ready? Early Registration Deadline juiy 3i - oniy $50 REGISTER ONLINE AT ATHENSGAHALF.COM M&C Approve CC Plan, Three-Laning Measures With a few reservations, Athens-Clarke County commissioners last week approved a schematic plan for the long-debated expan sion of the Classic Center. Concerns that the sprawling building will block circulation down town were met (somewhat, at least) by the Classic Center's promise to maintain pedes trian access through the building between Thomas and Foundry streets, even after a roofed atrium is added. (The atrium will be open between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m., Monday through Saturday.) An alternative route will be an existing pedestrian walkway over Foundry Street that leads to an elevator and stairwell to the Multimodal Transportation Center. That aerial walkway is "easy to use, if you know where it is" Commissioner Alice Kinman noted, but she also said signs need to be added to mark the route. Commissioner Jared Bailey voted against approval. "I still feel like the design is incomplete," he said. "I don't think that the design company or the people proposing this project have really addressed the issues that we brought up about pedestrian access through this block, and how they're going to address the front side of the building—how it's going to interact with downtown." The commission also voted to revise down town's sidewalk cafe ordinance for the third time since outdoor tables became legal in 1979; the change expands the allowable width of outdoor table areas to half the sidewalk's width wherever the sidewalk is more than 10-feet wide. Most existing downtown outdoor cafes won't change, but the revision will allow wider table areas outside the new mixed-use parking deck along Washington and Clayton streets. And while three-laning of county streets has been contentious in the past, no citizen spoke for or against proposals to three-lane Athens West Parkway and the non-residential section of Pulaski Street downtown. Both streets, presently four lanes, were approved for three-laning on 8-2 votes; both will be restriped with a center turn lane and four- to five-foot bicycle lanes in both directions. ACC policy is to evaluate four-lane streets for three-lane conversion whenever they are about to be repaved; where traffic volume is not too heavy, three-laning improves safety and permits bike lanes to be added. The four-lane portion of Hawthorne Avenue (from Prince to Oglethorpe) was also evaluated, but that road's traffic volume could exceed 20,000 cars per day by 2021, and "should not be con sidered for conversion," county transportation staffers said. Commissioners Doug Lowry and Harry Sims voted against three-laning Pulaski, while Lowry and George Maxwell opposed the Athens Wesfmeasure. Sims said ACC spends "a lot of money" (including $6 million proposed for the T-SPLOST vote) on bike lanes, yet bicyclists often disobey traffic laws. "If people are not going to follow the rules," he asked, "why should we give them this gift?" He called for better enforcement of traffic laws. "If you're a cyclist, you need to follow the rules of the road," added Commissioner Ed Robinson. "You can't have a bicycle-friendly city if you are allowing cyclists—just a few bad apples—to violate the rules... We're not going to have a bike-safe town until we have people safely cycling." John Huie A Rou*jo toiajm WATjoU Wi|LL 6 FLAGPOLE.COM-JULY 13,2011
