A group of a dozen or so Guadalupe residents trailed slowly behind Josh Meyer and Michael Moule as they walked down Guadalupe Street on April 22. Moule, a traffic engineer, seemed to study every aspect of the street as he walked, peering over sidewalk curbs into gutters, pushing on street sign posts to check for strength, and pointing out pedestrians dashing across the busy road despite the lack of crosswalk markings.
He and Meyer, the director of community planning programs for the Local Government Commission, will be doing this kind of observational work in Guadalupe for the next several months as part of a downtown mobility and revitalization effort. Community members will play a key role in the project, which is being funded by a Caltrans sustainable transportation grant and must be completed by the end of this year.
On April 22, a team of consultants and planners held a workshop at the American Legion Hall to gather community input. Another will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on April 25 in the same place.
The initial workshop included a tour of some of the project’s focus area, including much of Guadalupe and West Main streets, during which planners like Moule and Meyer pointed out areas they felt could be improved, and community members gave immediate feedback.
Moule and Meyer said said the project’s goal is to capitalize on existing assets and improve residents’ ability to walk, bike, and shop around town.
At the workshop, community members also focused on a separate but simultaneous project. With California Coastal Conservancy funding, another team of planners is working to discover the feasibility of a multi-use trail from Guadalupe to the coast, focusing on the space between Guadalupe, Mussel Point, the Rancho Guadalupe Dunes Preserve, and Oso Flaco Lake.
That feasibility study will continue for the next four months, and another workshop will be held in July.
This article appears in Apr 25 – May 2, 2019.