Public to see the core of Carson Street

A public hearing on plans for altering Carson Street’s downtown streetscape to promote a pedestrian-friendly feel is scheduled for Sept. 16, though times are yet to be set.

City Manager Nick Marano said it will provide a great opportunity for members of the public to see conceptual plans and provide input on them less than two weeks hence. He said it will give everyone the chance “to talk in detail” about efforts to improve Carson City’s core.

The Sierra Room at the Carson City Community Center is booked from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. on Sept. 16 to accommodate public presentations and the opportunity for reaction, but Community Development Director Lee Plemel said actual times will be blocked out later. He speculated there may be two presentations with plans available, including an open room for those who can come over during lunch hour, plus a night session on that third Tuesday of the month.

Plemel said the time and other pertinent details might be ready for announcement later this week. The public will be reviewing plans that currently envision wider sidewalks and other changes geared to enhancing the downtown experience for walkers and bicyclists, but in the past that has sparked a measure of opposition from those preferring continuation of two lanes both north and south for vehicular traffic.

The plans won’t dovetail with the mid-2006 concept for Carson Street, which envisioned a $12 million revitalization that went into the dust bin due to gathering recession forces later in the past decade, but many of the concepts in that plan remain. One thing that doesn’t in the current version is parallel parking, but traffic-calming features remain an underpinning of the planning approach.

Marano, who took over as the city’s chief staff executive about two months ago, brought with him advocacy for results like those detailed in the book “Reimagining Greenville.” That book’s analysis of the South Carolina city’s downtown changes mentioned wider sidewalks and other features. The book said downtown life, including retailing, revived in the aftermath of Greenville streetscape upgrades.