From City of Phoenix 9/14/11 Formal Agenda Page

Page.ITEM 38 DISTRICT 8 ST85100272 - ROOSEVELT STREET -
CENTRAL AVENUE TO 4TH STREET -DESIGN

Request to authorize the City Manager to enter into an agreement with Ritoch-Powell & Associates, Inc. to perform design
services for Roosevelt Street, from Central Avenue to 4th Street. This project consists of the narrowing of the roadway to make
room for wider sidewalks, street and pedestrian lighting, landscaping and irrigation, site furnishings, and shade structures. The
number of through travel lanes will remain the same.Ritoch-Powell & Associates, Inc. was chosen for this project using a qualifications-based selection process authorized by Section
34-603 of the Arizona Revised Statutes. Based on this selection process, Ritoch-Powell & Associates, Inc. was determined to be
the most qualified firm to provide the required services for this project.
The Engineer's fee for all services under this contract shall not exceed $152,502, including all subconsultant and reimbursable
costs.
Additionally, request to authorize the City Manager to take all action as may be necessary or appropriate, and to execute all
utilities-related design and construction agreements, licenses, permits, and requests for utility services relating to the
development, design, and construction of the project. Such utility services include, but are not limited to: electrical, water, sewer,
natural gas, telecommunications, cable television, railroads, and other modes of transportation. This authorization excludes any
transaction involving an interest in real property.
Financial Impact
Funding for this service is available from Arizona Highway User Revenue (AHUR) and Transportation Enhancement Federal Aid.
Project Funding Amount
ST85100272 AHUR 5.7%
Fed Aid 94.3%
$152,502
Employment Impact
The estimated number of jobs to be created or retained is up to two.
This Council award is subject to execution of the agreement by all of the parties.
The Street Transportation Department concurs with this request.
This item is also recommended by Mr. Naimark.
ITEM 39 OUT OF CITY CONT

^^I about spit out my coffee! Finally, the City is actually widening SIDEWALKS, planting trees, adding shade, AND going on a road diet. With 1st St improvements all this is a minor miracle for Phoenix...

Interesting they want to do that almost immediately after resurfacing the whole street.

Government waste at it's best, right there.

They're only funding the design. There isn't any money for actual construction. They hope to make it a shovel-ready project for whenever they can find funding (likely federal).

Actually, the only roads I'd like to see put on diets (in terms of lanes, not lane width), are the Sevens. Those virtual highways should get their capacity cut in half (add parallel parking and wider sidewalks), thereby diverting that traffic throughout the rest of downtown. Enough of this arterial, collector, and local crap. That's suburban traffic engineering.

:tup: I've had similar ideas about the 7's; I got a lot of crap for writing as much on this forum...expect similar comments about your idea. I am for narrowing streets all over downtown. Especially if that means widening sidewalks and adding bike lanes. It would be great if the City found the funding to start narrowing Roosevelt soon after the design phase is completed...

It's nice to see the City moving on this, but it is disappointing that this wasn't done two years ago to get in on earlier rounds of federal funding for shovel-ready work. It's also too bad that, at some very real level, any hope of federal funding is pinned to our Congressional representation helping make this happen. Even without Congressional assistance, the Mayor could go try to drum up money. If Gullett wins the election, I doubt he would go looking for the money although his lobbying experience could actually be useful.

I don't think anybody on here disagreed with road diets on 7th Ave and 7th St in principle. The disagreement was more over likelihood of success, and if success isn't likely, why would you devote the limited resources and political capital that you have on such a push. Also, there was disagreement because: (1) you insisted that the Council could do this without full Council approval following a meeting; and (2) the public, including suburban Phoenicians, would probably be fine with the road diet.

Rather than an objection to your end goal (which is pretty commonly shared on here), it was an objection to your philosophy on how you change something politically and legally - if you have limited resources to effectuate change, do you devote them to something that can be accomplished or something very pie-in-the-sky? How many smaller accomplishments, that you can succeed on, need to occur before the pie-in-the-sky goal becomes more attainable?

Obviously, the understanding about how projects are planned, funded and implemented remains elusive to many. It wasn't on the docket a few years ago because they prioritize projects and it may have not been high up, or it hadn't received funding. The fact that they are designing something in a growing area and will help to define a gateway into downtown should be looked at as a good thing, not as bureucratic socialist project you hear on the AZ Rep comment pages.

This only begs the question---why isn't something like this higher priority? Wasn't a major facelift to the vehicular entrance to Sky Harbor one of the federally funded shovel-ready projects a few years ago? At what point do we shift the priority away from car-centered projects and toward something else?

It was on the NE Corner of 2nd St and Roosevelt.

While I agree with your oft asserted premise that we need more density Downtown, 5 stories >>>>>>> dirt lot. Its not like this one of a few remaining lots in Downtown and if this one isn't built to max density we won't have the chance to build something bigger.

I think your approach/thought process works in a Robert Moses, top down, super planner sort of way, but thats not the political or economic reality of Phoenix. We should be happy with a project like this that is fairly dense, nice looking, and has ground floor retail.

With the way the economy is going we're not going to see super dense or super tall projects like 44 Monroe or Summit for a while. If we can get stuff of this size, because its easier to fund initially, it will bring more urban pioneers to Downtown. Slowly that process will gain momentum and eventually larger and denser projects will happen due to economic necessity.

We'll never get to that latter stage though if the people in our community look to anti developer and poo poo every well intended project though.

Can you tell what's going on to the West of Phase 1 there? I tried zooming in but the pic is too low res to make it out.

I'm not sure if I'm wild about the way at future build outs the 3 developments have that little plaza between them. With both the Portland Parkway, Japanese Friendship Garden and Hance Park right nearby it would be nice if the development pushed people more to those green spaces (and connected more directly with Hance/the Japanese Garden). But I'll take it either way.

ASU's help will double downtown Phoenix YMCA's size Read more: http://www.azcentral.
 

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/p...#ixzz1Xn0PNsMB

Do we have any renderings of what the addition will look like yet?

Truth = we actually don't have that much land to build on because we're semi-landlocked by historic neighborhoods, so yes, we need to maximize our land.

Like I said, 5 stories is fine as long as it's built w/ the ability to go higher. Or I'll add: or as long as it's wood-frame so we can easily replace it farther down the road.

I'm looking long-term. Over-parked 5-story buildings with large apartments that cannot easibly be upscaled won't pay off in the long run.

Density is a pre-req to creating a walkable environment, and I don't think people in Phoenix understand the mathematics behind the impact of our larger apt footprints & current-car reliance on both residential & service density.

Callin' me Robert Moses. That's cold dawg.

I thought the Usonian project I posted was for the Hard Rock/Trump site ... Nope.

It's proposed for 2747 E Camelback. You can tell by the gridwork in the adjoining building.

The buildings that are there last changed hands in March 30, 2007...and upon further research Steve Ellman of all people sold the site after he couldn't get the height entitlements.

Damn.

Hard rock = apartments if they ever start construction.

Your point? I was talking about a different project that this board never got wind of for whatever reason.

Idk what you're talking about. I saw "Usonian" and hard rock and it didn't ring a bell.

The hard rock site (2625 E Camelback) is being replaced with a 4-story apartment complex, and there's a flurry of permits for it in Development Services.

The Usonian project was proposed for the site down the road at 2747 E Camelback, but the neighbors didn't give on a four story height limit and Ellman sold it.

Right. You said you thought it was at the hard rock site, so I was just telling you what is going in there, since your post gave me no indication you knew.

Lol lost in translation.

Big hole for Lofts at McKinley

http://emvis.net/~sean/ssp/projects/...y/20110913.jpg