During their first meeting Wednesday, Canton Street task force members learned that there have been no studies performed to determine how businesses and residential neighborhoods would be affected by closing the road in the popular entertainment district to traffic on weekends.
Roswell is considering a trial run at creating a pedestrian promenade in the Canton Street district. Task force members appointed to develop recommendations describe it as a polarizing issue in the community.
Nearly every seat was taken during their first task force meeting, which drew residents and business owners and numerous city staff in the community room at Roswell City Hall.
The group learned that economic impact and in-depth traffic studies that could determine how the district would be affected by the promenade have not been done.
“I’ve been in real estate for 30 years and seen walkable areas do well,” task force member Eric Vayle said. “It is absolutely distressing to hear that there hasn’t been an official study.”
Vayle, a real estate asset manager, added that the task force has “a lot of work to do” but it’s important for the group to keep an open mind.
Transportation Director Jeffrey Littlefield said a traffic study would take about two months and would examine signal delays and where traffic would go if Canton Street is not available to motorists. The city already has traffic counts for the area and has made some determination on traffic patterns based on traffic lights, he said.
The task force has until about the end of August to develop a plan for the possible trial road closure and Canton Street promenade.
Laine Bristow, owner of Bristowe Hair Company, was appointed by members to chair the task force — which will meet Tuesday evenings over the next month. City Administrator Randy Knighton directed the flow of this week’s meeting and explained its framework to the group.
Task force members would like to see businesses’ financial data that show revenue performances from road closures during special events such as Alive in Roswell.
During public comment on Wednesday, the members heard from business owners and residents who say they’re worried about a negative impact from the possible project, but offered to assist the task force in their work.
Judie Raiford, owner of the Raiford Gallery and other properties on Canton Street, said her revenues drop 60% to 100% when the road closes for special events. Canton Street businesses are doing well and the city is trying to fix something that’s not broken, she said.
“Those of us on Canton Street have put millions into our properties, our businesses,” Raiford said. “We employ people from all over. We are a giant tax base for Roswell and I hope y’all will respect that.”
Bristow said she had already started talking to some owners before the meeting and some say they benefit from the special events. She added that some supporters of the project and others who want to learn more are hesitant to say so for fear of backlash.
She and other task force members said threatening emails and notes on cars are circulating to people believed to be in support of the promenade. Bristowe said her car was keyed recently and adds that she is generally “50-50″ on the potential project.
“I think we owe to ourselves as business owners and our community to kind of slow down the negativity with this, because it’s daily,” she said.
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