St. Joseph City Commissioners have approved a plan for a new non-motorized path along part of Botham Avenue when the street is reconstructed next year.
At a Monday meeting, City Engineer Tim Zebell told commissioners not only will crews redo the road between Niles Avenue and South State Street, but they’ll install new watermains.
Zebell said the city qualifies for a $687,000 Surface Transportation Block Grant from the federal government for the project, but those always come with a catch, and that’s that there be a non-motorized path for walkers and bicyclists. The path, along with new parking spaces, will necessitate the removal of some trees.
“Tree removal has always been kind of a sticky subject,” Zebell said. “This will still require probably about five tree removals due to the size of the trees. There’s multiple reasons why when we come through on a reconstruction project, we just have to take out some of the trees.”
Some residents complained about the tree removals at Monday’s meeting, but city leaders say they can’t be avoided due to the path and new parking spaces.
Zebell said the city will install some “pocket parking” areas along the north side of the street, like those seen on Langley.
Commissioners then approved the non-motorized path and pocket parking proposal. The project’s total cost will be about $1.5 million.
