This is a drawing of the “plaza street” portion of Water Avenue from Walker Macy’s 2021 “final design” of the Albany Waterfront Project.
So what exactly is that so-called “plaza street” that leaves Albany customers of Pacific Power on the hook for the expense of putting power lines under ground?
To get a description of this part of CARA’s Waterfront Project, I went back to the “final design” presented for public comment in March 2021 by Walker Macy, the Portland firm the City of Albany hired to design the overall project:
“Water Avenue next to Monteith Park will be re-imagined as a pedestrian-friendly environment that can be occasionally closed to vehicles to create a flexible plaza space for park events and seasonal markets. The Plaza Street features will include decorative paving, street trees and furnishings, new sidewalks, and multi-modal access improvements. Traffic-calming measures and other safety updates will help reduce the speed of through traffic.”
If this sounds a little vague, we’ll see the reality in the coming months.
“Multi-modal access improvements”? On the bike, I round the corner of Washington Street and Water Avenue several times a week. I’m not aware of any access problems along that end of Water. So I’m looking forward to finding out what multi-modal access improvements could possibly be.
The same with “traffic calming” and “safety updates.” This is not exactly a street with a lot of traffic, let alone speeding traffic, so again, let’s see what the project will yield.
The agreement the council approved Monday says Pacific Power will charge its Albany customers a monthly surcharge for two years to get back the cost of burying its power lines to accommodate the plaza street plan. The surcharge has been estimated at about $4 per month for each of the utility’s 24,500 Albany accounts.
City officials did not include this cost, estimated to be about $2.4 million, in the Albany Waterfront Project’s budget, leaving ratepayers to pick up the tab. Now they will try to come up with some money from the CARA urban renewal program to bear at least part of the cost.
However that turns out, I hope that when the plaza street is done, it will still be the convenient “multi-modal” bike and traffic route it is now. (hh)
The story has been edited to fix a typo in the number of Pacific Power’s Albany customers.
The “plaza street” can be closed to traffic so that events can be held there.
I see trees, cars and ghostlike figures.
I lost the script. Are we on the hook for the creation of this too?
Even more expensive….
WOW!!!
It appears to me that the only “Street” will be Washington! Water is blocked to the east by trees and covered shade areas.
Obviously those “covered shade areas” are pop-up tents for events that could happen. The trees do not/wiil not block any traffic whatsoever.
That illustration showed that the street could be temporarily blocked for events.
Looks like another over seeing of or city council going over board with their head strong way .We are not a big city like Salem or Portland that need a water front scenic attraction to hold events .The City council all ready did the big park remodel that was a disaster with the concrete stair to the stage area. Why? We need more grass to enjoy sitting to watch the show. Looks like the city council just want to spend money they do not have and charge it to the people of Albany without bringing it to the voters again. Stop the nonsense oust our city council and get some people in there that actually want to make improvement the right way instead of take short cut to get our money.
Could have used that money towards street repairs that would benefit everyone of Albany.
More lipstick & piles of pancake make up (tax dollars & increased PPL rates) to beautify what will remain a “pig” of an area. Mayor… no matter how much CARA money you toss at it the area will never be a Riviera.
Honestly, who is going to enjoy these improvements? Government jobs, builders etc. are the only ones who can afford anything in that area. The businesses the city supports such as the smoke and pawn shops will not support the maintenance of all these improvements. Albany is not Portland or even Corvallis where there are more higher paying jobs to support these unnecessary areas. Albany is a working class city and there is nothing going to change that so why keep trying to make it into something it will never be. Working for a living is nothing to be ashamed of. Albany is a beautiful simple town that in the past had people that believed in community. Now our city government only sees money as a goal. Portland is not a good city to emulate unless you want more crime and people struggling to live.
Hear, hear! Well said. Thank you for your comments.
Albany has a seven figure appetite on a 5 figure salary.
“Multi-modal access; traffic-calming measures!” What a bunch of ad-agency-type claptrap!!! What traffic? What multi modes of whatever? What businesses are on
Water Street that are going to bring the need for traffic calming? Answer: None.
The “people” need to figure out a way to stop the power lines being put underground and therefore stymie this CARA/Council b.s. Someone with more know-how than I have needs to start gathering signatures to stop the City/PP&L deal on transferring the power lines to underground system.
Restrict the mayor and councils control over the budget or at the very least stop unnecessary elective “vanity” projects that serve only to provide a self aggrandising backdrop for their egos …….and then vote them out.
Try not to vote in a socialist, unless that’s really what you want Albany. Is that what you want? If so then sit back and relax…all is going according to plan.
Looks like a nice place for the homeless to hang out
i do not agree with the amount of money spent. downtown, waterfront park and this area fully upgraded now make a very large area to hold events in. possibly the post office property added to this in the far future. i can see all of this as a really cool thing. …but all of this could be had, and more, cheaper, if common sense was used from the beginning. so here we are today, bent over, and ready to take it again on the street fix. we can all see this coming. and after the street fix, a surprise added cost will be added like the power bill.
Where are the usual apologists, liberals and city hall sycophants? They on vacation?
They seem to be conspicuously absent of late, not that I miss them….but I come and go so?
Ordinarily expect to see them spring into action to defend any and all spending and lavish programs etc… Is this blog now being engineered to be seen only by and for critics of city hall? Divert and distract?
Maybe I’m seeing something different than someone else? It’s not like that’s never happened. Maybe should be viewing thru a secure server VPN private window.
I was recently warned to be more polite. When someone is trying to reach into our pockets but it winds up that “Oh now I’m being rude!”
People tend to respond to disagreeable things….disagreably.
But I digress….Now back to the “Beautification Program” Not like the CCP at all.
CCP is Chinese Communist Party. What in the hell are you talking about?
Waste of money! Lets repair our streets, Clean up Waverly Lake. Pacific Power is all ready doing several rate hikes.
If we are gonna spend, we need to spend wisely. My automobile’s suspension is way more expensive than a bicycle.
Where does the money go?
bicycle? im thinkin’ horse to travel on albanys streets.
All the angst, proffered is definitely reminiscent of what Corvallis went through to re-do their waterfront. I seriously doubt many folks there would ever even dream of having it look like it did before. It (and the resulting changes) were serious improvements to their community – as will this be for Albany.
OSU has a large population of students and young profesionals, many of whom eat out often, not to mention bar hopping etc. Seems a different culture than blue collar Albany.
Also they have an enormouse homeless population. Tents are everywhere.
I had to laugh at the comment that Pacific Power will raise our rates for only two years. Does anyone honestly think they will lower the rate back down? This whole project is absurd! It’s time to clean house of the current city council and abolish CARA!
The undergrounding surcharge will appear on the bill as a “municipal exaction.” When the expense is paid off, you can count on this separate item to disappear from the bill.
I am unclear why it is necessary to bury the lines in order to achieve the goal of a plaza area. Surely trees could be planted, roads could be beautified, and the ability to block of the area could all be done while power poles and lines are still present.
What am I missing?
As I have said, “Let’s not have this ‘municipal exaction’ on our PP&L bills.” Someone younger than me get out there and take a petition door to door for signatures to stop the power lines at Water and Washington being moved underground. If we, the people, can stop the lines going underground that will stop the plaza street in its tracks….I should say, “in its bricks.”
Looks nice. Hopefully the plan is to move the farmers market down there?
There are several people complaining about the projects and I can see of their points but if you want a change in leadership on the council apply to run. It doesn’t pay much and there are lots of meetings. Go for it.
I left a comment last night which was “being moderated”
Ray K was the only Councilor to speak to this — and i thought I’d let folks know that Dick and I had issues with the Waterfront project, and voted against it repeatedly, for a number of reasons.
Why would you not let my voice be heard here?
Ms. Novak, Many of our voices are not heard by anyone in the city’s government. The city does not return phone calls and passes the buck on many questions we ask. We are not listened to on a regular basis on situations that directly affect our lives. I am sure you do not hear many of the happenings with the city because it is “moderated” before it gets to you and what they portray they are doing to citizens is for the greater good. Welcome to our world of being unheard or considered at all.
Chris j,
You may well be correct about my not hearing about things.
The “undergrounding” issue is a case in point. I’d never even heard that term before reading it in the recent Council packet.
I’m No fan of “the greater good”.
My beloved parents lived under, and fled, communism. They’d be appalled by what this country has become.
Sadly, after nearly 4 years speaking out from the Council dais, I can tell you I’m well familiar with not being heard or even considered at all.
I’m also accustomed to being misquoted and/or ignored.
What you describe is precisely why I make a distinction between “the City” and “the town”….
They seem to be two very different, overlapping worlds.
“The “undergrounding” issue is a case in point. I’d never even heard that term before reading it in the recent Council packet.”
Note what it states on the main page of the City’s web site about the project under “Water Avenue” [ https://www.albanyoregon.gov/cara/albany-waterfront-project ]
“…improved pedestrian crossings and railroad crossings, relocated overhead utilities…”
I’ll suggest that is quite obvious and has been public information for a long time time…