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City weighs improvements for Downtown Mall area

Charlottesville City Council held a special planning meeting Monday night to discuss changes and improvements to West Main Street and the Downtown Mall.

"The purpose of [Monday's] meeting was to discuss and prioritize a number of capital improvement projects," Vice Mayor Kevin Lynch said. "We looked at a wide number of projects ranging from crossings of the Mall and extending side streets out to Water Street."

The highest priority project was replacing the bricks on the Downtown Mall, City Mayor David Brown said. Council members also discussed how to reconfigure the intersection of West Main Street and McIntyre Road, presently a five-way intersection.

Council member Rob Schilling said he was concerned there were repairs throughout the City that should be a higher priority.

"Just two weeks ago we heard from Public Works, and they said that we have sidewalks broken and other problems in the City," Schilling said. "We really shouldn't be building new things until we fix what we've already got."

Lynch said there was discussion about the need to do maintenance projects before the City progresses with new projects and new construction.

"That is something we will have to be discussing in the neighborhoods as well," Lynch said. "We've built a lot of stuff in the last few years, and we have gotten a little behind in maintenance."

Brown said the repairs are important, and "keeping the Downtown Mall fresh, alive and vibrant is important because, for example, if we improve side streets, then that becomes new attractive pedestrian areas for restaurants and shops."

Improvements Council plans to pursue promptly include decreasing congestion on West Main Street by synchronizing the traffic lights, Lynch said.

Brown said the City hired consulting firm Wallace, Roberts & Todd, LLC, to look at planning for West Main Street and the Downtown Mall.

"If we know exactly the type of design elements we'd like to have, and we have some design-engineering detail work done, then we can work with development to make sure West Main Street works from a design point of view," Brown said. "As West Main Street develops, we're looking at fairly wide streetscapes in order to include trees and maybe outdoor cafes."

Brown said the West Main Street corridor could become a new area for economic developments, which connects the University and the Downtown area.

"The merging is a new focus for the City," he said. "The University is embarking on some significant developments on Main Street near Northern Exposure that is going to involve a big new parking structure and some hospital space. Part of what we were doing was talking about design on Main Street to incorporate [the University's] design."

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