Santa Claus has arrived early, bringing several million dollars
to improve Depot Street, an increasingly important segment of the
downtown picture.
Santa Claus has arrived early, bringing several million dollars to improve Depot Street, an increasingly important segment of the downtown picture.
The Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission announced this week that the city was one of five successful grant proposals, receiving $2,626,638 of $18 million available for local projects. Morgan Hill’s grant was the largest and the only one not cut, according to Bill Newkirk, analyst for Business Assistance and Housing Services.
The funds would be used to widen sidewalks, install period-looking street lights, bike lanes and street furniture – benches, planters and trash receptacles – and traffic slowing islands and to landscape the previously bleak and cheerless street.
The grant could also fund public art. The money will arrive in July 2006 and construction completed in March 2007.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy said he was delighted with the award.
“This will be great for our downtown,” Kennedy said. “It has needed a shot in the arm and this is one of many ways to help.”
The city is required to match the grant with $350,000, not yet reserved in the budget.
Newkirk said staff will offer the City Council several options for finding the money and council will decide which one to use.
Kennedy said he thought this would be an appropriate use of general fund reserves, as a one time expense that would leverage outside funds.
“It’s an investment with payback,” Kennedy said.
“The grant is for transportation-oriented designs with an emphasis on public transportation, pedestrian and bicycle-friendliness,” Newkirk said. “We can expand downtown by beautifying Depot and give an impetus to develop the Sunsweet site.”
The Sunsweet site between East Third and East Fourth streets, facing upon Depot, was rejected this year by council as a location for the new library. It is owned by The Glenrock Group now planning market rate condominiums and some retail, though plans are not definite.
Depot Street runs parallel to and just west of the railroad tracks, connecting East Dunne with East Main. The Downtown Plan has designated Depot as part of a pedestrian-friendly, walkable grid of streets connecting the new county courthouse just east of the tracks to downtown.
Where it was once an industrial street served by the railroad, development is improving Depot’s fortunes. The award-winning Community and Cultural Center now anchors the southern end at Dunne. Weston Miles Architects is salvaging the old Isaacson’s Grain Co. building near Main, turning it into upscale offices and possibly shops and even a restaurant.
The little station building at the end of East Third Street is now open during the day as Ya Bon serving coffee to early-morning commuters and lunch crepes and dessert all day to nearby workers and walkers. During the past decade or so, Depot acquired new housing and saw others renovated, causing the street to enter the mixed-use category that MTC looks fondly upon.
Councilman Greg Sellers, a long-time downtown advocate, sees the grant as one link to a brighter future.
“This is an opportunity for us to use the money as a catalyst to help out several projects on Depot,” Sellers said. “It’s not just a Public Works project, with nice curbs and sidewalks sitting there by themselves.”
It is a chance to work toward a complete area transformation, he said, with publicly-funded landscaping, curbs and street furniture complementing and enhancing private businesses. The result will be good for everyone in town.
However, Sellers wants new projects on the Third Street corridor between Depot and Monterey especially, to get moving. Residential units will provide ready-made customers for local businesses; new retail and food establishments will boost the residents’ quality of life.
Carol Holzgrafe covers City Hall for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or by phoning (408) 779-4106 ext. 201.
