Tuesday night, although there was a lengthy PowerPoint and explanation of the plan for Stadium Drive and North Avenue where Marty and Debbie Ludas are protesting the plans that will affect their historic home and separate business building, Town Manager Kip Padgett said at the close that the town will not touch the brick wall that is part of the dispute until the Stadium Drive Complete Street Plan is constructed.
The Ludases were not at the town board work session, but they and their attorney did meet with town staff members on Tuesday, April 25.
Mayor Vivian Jones asked the three people who presented the town plan – Assistant to the Town Manager Candace Davis, Assistant Town Engineer Holly Miller and Senior Planner Michelle Michael – what will happen next, and the answer was to continue to research options to replace the existing brick wall and sidewalk.
Davis, who guided the planning for Stadium Drive up through the sticky effort to obtain all the needed right-of-way, said the planned 5-foot sidewalk in the North Avenue plan cannot be removed because the plan has been approved.
The presentation Tuesday did not include the plan that showed the sidewalk being built entirely on the street’s east-bound travel lane, pushing the two planned traffic lanes up against the new brick wall. The location of the new sidewalk and the shifting of the lanes northward are part of the complaint voiced by Marty Ludas.
North Avenue is owned and maintained by the state Department of Transportation which will not allow steps from the sidewalk to empty directly into the street. Miller said steps will be built in other locations but not reaching the street.
Marty Ludas also wanted to retain the loading zone on North Avenue, but Jason Pace with Kimley-Horn which is designing the street changes, said the loading zone will be moved to North Main Street. “You don’t put loading zones that close to a stop sign” as the North Avenue zone is.
The plan for the street will have to return to the town’s Historic Preservation Commission for approval because North Avenue from the north side curb is part of the town’s historic district along North Main Street and some other locations.
Parking along the street was actually removed as one of several parking changes approved in May of 2015, but Miller said the town continued to let people, largely seminary students, park there until the Stadium Drive project begins later this year. North Avenue will be affected by the construction of a large roundabout at the intersection of it, Wingate Street and Stadium Drive.
