More than 70 residents attended the virtual public information meeting held Wednesday, October 7 by Alta Planning and Design to unveil the preliminary design for the bike/pedestrian pathway slated for Henry W. Dubois Drive in New Paltz. The town and village governments have been attempting for at least 20 years to find funding to create sidewalks and/or bike paths along the heavily trafficked residential corridor that runs from North Putt Corners Road to North Chestnut Street.
In 2019 the municipalities received a $2.7 million Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) grant that will provide 80 percent of the funding for the design and construction of a bike/pedestrian corridor on the mile-long residential road. The town and village will have to put up the other 20 percent.
There is currently striping for a bike lane on Henry W. DuBois, as it is part of the Empire State Trail.
Some residents, who fear that their trees and shrubs will be taken down or their land taken, or that the construction of a bike/ped corridor will result in more traffic, both motorized and non-motorized, have been writing letters, painting signs and creating a network of “Save the Trees” posts that refer to Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax. One DuBois homeowner has utilized a collection of pink flamingos to illustrate objections to the pathway, including one chained to a tree that holds a sign saying “Friend of Henry.”
“I think anything that promotes public engagement in local government is great,” said town supervisor Neil Bettez, a strong advocate for the bike and pedestrian path on Henry W. DuBois, despite some of the neighbors’ objections. “They’re making art. I love art!”
There were two ways of going about the design, which has to be approved by the state Department of Transportation (DOT) and fit Federal Highway Administration and TAP guidelines for safety and construction. One of the designs called for the creation of two five-foot-wide bike lanes on both the north and south side of DuBois, in conjunction with a five-foot-wide sidewalk on one side. That would require carving out extra feet.
Support for shared path
The “alternative” to this plan was the creation of a ten-foot-wide combined bike/pedestrian pathway, similar to the one along Route 299 across from Lowe’s. This would be on one side of the street and reduce the cost and girth of the project.
The steering committee for this project, along with the majority of neighbors and stakeholders who were surveyed, leaned heavily in favor of the alternative, shared path, including 79 percent of all of those tuned into the meeting last week. The preliminary design calls for the ten-foot-wide combined pedestrian and cycling path to begin on the south side of DuBois from North Chestnut to Prospect Street, and then from the north side of DuBois from Prospect Street to North Putt Corners Road.
In total, the preliminary design would result in approximately 30 trees being taken down, all of which “we will replace with another tree,” said Kristie DiCocco from Alta, who, along with Lindsay Zefting, have been the leading project engineers from the bike/pedestrian design firm, also the firm being used for the Empire State Trail. DiCocco explained that there were several ways that they could separate the shared pathway from the vehicular traffic, including a basic guardrail, “which isn’t the nicest-looking, but it is effective, easy to replace, and relatively inexpensive.”
She addressed concerns that the residents have brought up, again stating that there would be no taking of private property, and that the shared pathway would require the town and village take care of snow removal.
DiCocco also noted that the plan could help with traffic-calming measures. Many neighbors of the proposed bike path have expressed concern that the road is currently unsafe because of vehicles not coming to complete stops, speeding and truck traffic using the road illegally.
To that end, Alta engineers pointed to various ways the project could help with traffic, including “pinch points,” where they put in a vegetated area surrounded by a curb to narrow the road, requiring vehicles heading in opposite directions to go one at a time. Another alternative would be to create raised crosswalks to slow traffic down and alert drivers to pedestrian and bike activity. A third would be to create a “one-way conversion,” whereby traffic on DuBois is reduced to one-way for a block or two, in an effort to slow the thoroughfare behavior.
“That is not a slam-dunk,” cautioned DiCocco. “We would have to do a cost analysis and a traffic analysis to make sure that we do not create a negative traffic impact on surrounding residential streets.”
Informal comment period
The engineers also talked about drainage and how many issues the road has with stormwater runoff, as its topography is rolling and hilly, with valleys in the middle susceptible to flooding. DiCocco said that they could use the $475,000 green infrastructure grant the town received through the New York State Climate Smart Communities program to put in a rain garden, or construct more drainage ditches and pipes to reroute the water to either a rain garden, a retention pond, or another vegetated area that would “allow it to collect, slow down and be cleaned.”
The meeting was opened for questions from those in virtual attendance. The traffic analysis survey showed 4000 trips daily. ”A roundabout was outside of our scope and funding.” There was a question as to where the crosswalks would be, and she said, “At most intersections – at least the major ones like Prospect Street and Manheim.”
“This is the ‘informal comment period,’ but we’ve been answering questions both through e-mail and telephone to the best of our ability” since the spring. DiCocco said. She put the engineers’ e-mail addresses and website on the screen and encouraged people to provide feedback. She said that comments already received have helped to drive the draft the design thus far and will continue to be incorporated.
As for bog turtles, an endangered species that was thought possibly to have suitable habitat near DuBois, DiCocco said that their “preliminary determination,” after gathering information from various state and federal agencies, was that there are no bog turtles in the neighborhood. Plans for increased vegetation, replanting of trees and providing safe, alternative non-motorized transportation corridors would ultimately have a positive environmental impact.
The draft design will be turned over to the DOT for review. Once a formally “proposed design” is adopted, public comment will be taken for two weeks. The timeline has public input going through the spring of 2021 and would not have construction begin until the fall of 2021. A plethora of information, documents and FAQs are available on their website, www.walkbikehwd.weebly.com.
Bettez reiterated that the road was already being used by pedestrians from the myriad of residential homes and apartment/condominium complexes along DuBois, and that he envisioned “residents and visitors of all ages and abilities being able to walk and bike safely along this residential street to the community center, Moriello Pool, the Wallkill Valley rail-trail the Millbrook Preserve and Historic Huguenot Street.”
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