Recordpub.com - Meeting addresses downtown proposal: Improved Kent, KSU link sought

By Matt Fredmonsky

Record-Courier staff writer

About two dozen people heard a presentation Thursday night at the Kent Free Library on methods for connecting downtown Kent with Kent State University through redevelopment and transportation projects.

The discussion briefly touched on broader redevelopment proposals throughout the downtown. But representatives from the city, KSU and the Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority kept the presentation focused on plans to build a multi-modal transit facility downtown and extend The Esplanade — the on-campus leg of The Portage Hike and Bike Trail — from KSU to Franklin Avenue.

A second public meeting to present the same proposals is scheduled at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Kent City Council chambers.

Kent City Engineer Jim Bowling led much of the discussion along with Bryan Smith, the planning director for PARTA, and Tom Euclide, who is the director of architecture and engineering in the office of the university architect.

Euclide said, from the university’s perspective, the key physical element in connecting to downtown Kent is The Esplanade.

“As soon as we opened up a section, people started flowing down it,” Euclide said. “We know it would be a great thing to extend downtown ... To make it very easy for students, faculty and staff to go downtown and to make it easy for community members to go up on the hill for the big shows (and) sports.”

One plan for extending the pedestrian pathway west from campus sends it down Erie Street, where as many as 10 properties could be purchased to make way for construction, Euclide said. After the path met Haymaker Parkway, it would continue along S.R. 59 to Franklin Avenue.

Bowling said all the planning parties involved have agreed Erie Street is the logical connection between downtown and campus. PARTA’s plans for a bus transit center with attached vehicle parking on approximately 2 acres show the facility spanning Haymaker Parkway and South DePeyster Street while fronting Erie Street.

Bowling said, since 1993, seven different studies — including the Bicentennial Plan — have analyzed methods of connecting campus to downtown in order to approve the city’s curb appeal, attract students and generate development. But now community leaders are hopeful this latest planning effort will come to fruition.

“It may seem a little confusing,” Bowling said. “It’s been out in the public, that I’ve seen, since 1990. You may ask, why are we still talking about the same thing. It’s a process.”

The future of downtown Kent? Meeting Thursday to discuss redevelopment proposal

July 8, 2009

http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4623890

4.	Posted by Watchman July 10, 2009
	Gee whiz, it'll be nice to build an ultra-modern fancy sidewalk for the students in the dorms to walk down to the bars, get drunk and barf. It'll be such a boost to the confidence of the students, and another great street party area. I envy the amount of money that contractors would get to develop the new puke superhighway. Why do the students need a beeline downtown to the bars and tattoo parlors? Why would hard-working residents want to walk up the hill to the university? Are they expecting people to trudge all the way up there to have a picnic on the muddy acorn-covered knolls after a hard-day's work? Maybe they'll put in a carousel with shiny colorful horsies. There are already sidewalks that connect campus with downtown anyways. -And busses. Is this a safety issue, building the puke superhighway? Is there concern about students driving from the dorms drunk? Is KSU footing part of the bill? Is that why tuition is so much? Perhaps they're taking a break from palace-building (I think that rec center on Summit reminds me of Jabba-the-Hutt's palace). They claim tuition is in the stratosphere in order to be competitive and to be in-line with all the other universities that take advantage of student-loan and govt grant money, hypercharging students for tuition and engaging in palace-building. The more money the universities know is available, the more they charge, and the more they charge, the more extravagant and eccentric building projects are taken on. When everyone runs out of money from this type of nonsense maybe the government will print some more pretend currency, which by that time would free up funds for the puke superhighway to be widened. :P