The city is ramping up its Safe Streets For All project – though it could be some time before anything concrete takes place.

Jason Kulaszewski, city principal planner, recently discussed the initiative during a city Planning Commission meeting.

“That is essentially a pedestrian safety plan to try to reduce vehicular, pedestrian incidents, car crashes, things like that,” Kulaszewski said.

This project is just getting started, but was something that Kulaszewski said was awarded under Ellen Shadle, his predecessor, so he’s picking up where she left off. He added that he was sure public engagement would be happening, and that there would be another opportunity for this project to be presented to the Planning Commission as well. Kulaszewski expressed that he felt allowing the Planning Commission to have a seat at the table and be able to express their opinions on these types of projects is important.

“I think it will work to address any potential issues we may have with traffic patterns, pedestrian safety, sidewalks, all of those things and so this is really just to again put it on your radar to let you know about the work we’re going to be doing in the city,” Kulaszewski said.

Safe Streets For All is also part of what Kulaszewski said he hopes to be able to bring to the table as he takes on the role of city planner, with the goal of creating more transparency and open communication to show what is happening in the Department of Development, and that is something Kulaszewski said they would like the Planning Commission to be a part of during Kulaszewski’s tenure.

A question was raised if the “Safe Streets For All” plan would include ebikes and scooters as the city has been seeing a lot of problems with such devices. Kulaszewski said he was not sure, as the project had not yet begun at the time of the meeting, but that he thought it could as the goal is to get the stakeholders of streets in the city; such as the city, county and Jamestown Community College, involved with the plans too.

A previous project called “Complete Streets” was then brought up, and it was asked if Safe Streets For All was the same thing or something similar, with the suggestion that people who worked on that may be able to be brought in for this as well, with the knowledge of what worked and did not work. It was noted that Complete Streets was more design work for streets, but that it pursued similar issues.

Kulaszewski said that right now this is a planning process with no current funding for implementation, though the planner said it’s possible the Safe Streets For All grant could lead to more funding in the future. Additionally, he said the plan was to build off of the “Complete Streets” project to create a plan for pedestrian safety in the city.

Kulaszewski also updated commission members on the city’s ongoing Comprehensive Plan, which has undergone the public input process.

“They’ve taken some of that feedback and shared it with us,” Kulaszewski said. “Some of the next steps coming up over the next few quarters are essentially referring some of the project to accounting purview … There will be another public meeting coming up. So this is just an update to put these on your radar.”

Kulaszewski added that the Department of Development encourages the members of the Planning Commission to take an interest in the upcoming public meeting and the rest of the process as the Comprehensive Plan project continues. Another suggestion that has come up so far in the process is a review of the land use plan in the Comprehensive Plan, which is something Kulaszewski is not specifically zoning, but is basically an update for the land use based on previous zoning code.

“So, internally with the internal steering committee, we’re in the process of reviewing the land use plan and providing feedback to CNS, the consultants about that process,” Kulaszewski said. “That will also get baked into the final draft version of the plan before it gets sent off to the county and to the council for their adoption.”