Mayor mulls downtown overhaul

Study underway to determine possible changes; DORA returns to council

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Downtown Kokomo hasn’t received much love since former Mayor Greg Goodnight aggressively reshaped the neighborhood beginning in 2008. At that time, traffic lights were removed in favor of stop signs. Sidewalks were reconstructed with the addition of decorative brick work, and the infamous pedestrian “bump-outs” were added to improve the walkability of downtown.

Today, the pavement in downtown is crumbling, particularly along Buckeye Street, where it shares the road with a railway. The brick work in the sidewalks is in disrepair, and the occasional motorist still fails to navigate the bump-outs.

Mayor Tyler Moore is aware of the downtown street conditions, and he revealed that a study is currently being conducted to identify needs and plan improvements, some of which could take place soon.

“There are a few downtown things that we want to address this year,” said Moore. “One of them is the alley between the Macy Apartments and the library down to where the old Barko building was.”

This is the east-west alley between Walnut and Mulberry streets. It is one of several alleys across the city Moore would like to see repaved, and it is a project the Kokomo Street Department could handle, keeping the work in-house.

When it comes to Buckeye Street, however, the city’s hands are tied. Kokomo Grain Co. owns the railway and its associated right of way. The city must obtain permission from the company to make any significant changes.

“We need to get with Kokomo Grain,” said Moore, thinking particularly of the severely degraded intersection of Sycamore and Walnut streets. “We want to make sure they're comfortable if we could just somehow pave over the rails. Our initial discussions with their representatives were that they would be willing to allow us to pave over it.”

Moore said that city would need to perform additional grading of the road surface in the process of paving over the rails, and citizens must understand that the company could require the rails to be uncovered should it decide to put them back into service.

“Especially there at Sycamore is really bad,” said Moore. “I think we'll do, unfortunately, just some ‘Band-Aid’ work to try and raise that up and make it a little easier to pass before we work something out with (Kokomo Grain) to redo the street.”

The sidewalks will not be ignored during the downtown improvements. Moore envisions the development of a “master plan” to address the many projects. He said the city will partner with Howard County to address improvements to the sidewalks surrounding the courthouse. The other sidewalks will be reconstructed radically.

“If there's something ornamental that is similar to the brick work that can still give that aesthetic appeal, we’ll do that,” said Moore. “I do like the brick work but realizing that it takes a little more maintenance and is more expensive, we may go with something like stamped concrete.”

The bump-outs, however, are here to stay, though they may be altered slightly, Moore explained.

“I do think there's logic in the placement of certain bump-outs throughout the community, not just in downtown,” said Moore. “If there's a way to scale them back a little bit, we may try that. But you would like to think, for as long as they've been in, that folks would be a little more comfortable with bump-outs and a little more used to navigating around them.

“We won't add any, but if there's an opportunity to scale them back to make them more navigable for motorists, but still assure the initial intent on keeping pedestrians as safe as they can, we’ll look at that.”

Walkability is a concept Goodnight popularized during his three terms in office. His vision was to enhance business, entertainment, and dining options in the city’s center. Slowing traffic with bump-outs and stop signs was a big part of that. And it is something that Moore similarly believes in and wants to foster.

To that end, Moore recently considered a proposal from the Howard County Board of Commissioners to vacate the 100 block of East Mulberry Street. The commissioners are in the process of demolishing the former Firestone building at the southwest corner of Union and Mulberry streets and thought adding green space and additional parking would be a good use of the land.

That plan was later scrapped.

“I had talked to a handful of downtown business owners that were concerned about losing the additional on-street parking,” said Moore.  “The county agreed to take that off the table, especially once the Veterans Memorial Corp. decided to relocate (its proposed monument).”

The mayor is open to other alterations and accommodations. His plan for a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) is expected to return to the Kokomo Common Council April 29 for consideration. The city has explored ways to make downtown more attractive for outdoor alcohol consumption in light of the measure.

“We had looked at the possibility of parklets, like the Mass. Ave. area in Indianapolis,” said Moore. “They are basically extensions of the sidewalks into parking areas that can be temporary in nature.”

The logistics of these parklets, however, are difficult without a DORA because the area where alcohol is consumed has to be cordoned off from the general public. Since some of the narrower sidewalks in downtown don’t provide enough space to do that, the parklet idea perished.

The DORA is very much alive. If passed by the council, the ordinance would allow patrons to visit bars and restaurants in downtown and take their alcoholic beverages with them out of the establishments. The proposed area affected by the DORA ranges from Kokomo Municipal Stadium to the 500 block of North Buckeye Street.

“We're hoping that the DORA gets established which will allow those establishments to serve adult beverages without having a railing or designated area,” said Moore.

The Kokomo Common Council will meet on Mon., April 29, at 6 p.m. in the first floor chambers at City Hall.