ELKHART — The newly reconfigured 2nd Street will have planters to go alongside of it in an effort to bring more trees downtown, city officials said.
After the restriping of the street was complete, public works knew it would have between 3 and 6 feet left over on the west side of the street, said Jacob Wolgamood, TIF infrastructure project supervisor for the city. It would not be enough space for a bike lane or parking spots, he said. The city decided to put in planters to bring more trees to the area and help people feel safer while walking on the sidewalk.
“We estimated the number of planters to be between 90 and 120,” Wolgamood said. “So, we sent out requests for quotes to get 120 planters in 72 inches long and 96 inches long, which seem to be the two most common types of planters.”
The city received three quotes in total, and the winning quote was from Wausau Tile based in Wisconsin, Wolgmood said. The amount for the quote is $149,000 for 120 planters, but he thinks based on modeling, the estimated cost of the project will be a lot less. There will be between 60 and 80 planters along 2nd Street between Harrison Street and Jackson Street.
The city has not picked out what species of tree will go in the planters, but Wolgamood said they are looking for a burgundy-colored tree that does not have any fruit that might stain the street. The trees will be 6 to 8 feet tall and no more than 4 feet in breadth, so vehicles will not clip their side view mirrors on trees, he said.
“There’s not a lot of trees going down 2nd Street,” Wolgamood said. “And we’ve talked both in our department and in redevelopment services … there’s a big desire communitywide to get more trees planted in downtown. We have some heat maps that show where trees should be planted, and 2nd Street was one of the areas that came up.”
The plan for 2nd Street is to narrow the travel lanes to reduce speed, Assistant City Engineer Jeff Schaffer said. The goal of the angled parking is to make 2nd Street more business-friendly like Main Street, Schaffer added.
The overall goal of the downtown masterplan, which 2nd Street is a part of, is to make downtown a destination, Schaffer said.
“It’s not a place meant to move traffic through anymore,” Schaffer said. “We want people to stop there.”