OCEAN CITY — A plan to widen sidewalks along Robin Drive was at least temporarily tabled this week after concerns were raised about the potential loss of some on-street parking associated with the project.
On Monday, City Engineer Terry McGean presented a proposed plan to repave Robin Drive, the densely populated corridor that runs east to west from Coastal Highway to the bayside at 28th Street. Each year, the town repaves certain roadways through an ongoing street paving program and identifies those on which other improvements can be gained at the same time.
As part of the relatively new Complete Streets policy, any time a roadway is considered for repaving, broader consideration is given to other pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements. In some cases, that means widening sidewalks, undergrounding utilities where possible and adding marked or shared bicycle lanes where possible.
On Monday, McGean presented tentative plans for Robin Drive, explaining under the current configuration, the sidewalks on the south side of Robin Drive are often blocked in some areas by utilities. In addition, there are numerous sloping curb cuts for driveways along the south side of the roadway. He presented a picture of a woman pushing a stroller in the roadway on Robin Drive because the sidewalk is largely unpassable in that area.
The plan presented on Monday including widening the sidewalk on the south side of Robin Drive to 10 feet, while widening the sidewalk on the north side to eight feet. To accomplish that goal, some on-street parking would have to be eliminated. Currently, the right-of-way on Robin Drive is 50 feet wide with two travel lanes, parallel parking on both sides of the street and five-foot sidewalks on both sides.
Due to the large number of driveways and curb cuts on the south side, there are currently nine useable on-street parking spaces on that side of the roadway, two of which are time-restricted for public works solid waste collection. There are also six parking spaces on the north side of Robin Drive near the miniature golf course that would need to be eliminated. Those six spaces would likely need to be eliminated regardless of whether the sidewalks are widened because of the need for a third travel lane in that area closest to Coastal Highway.
In short, the net loss of on-street parking would be 15 total spaces, including 13 standard spaces and two time-restricted spaces. McGean said he had aerial pictures taken of the on-street parking situation in that area of Robin Drive on different days and at different times of day throughout the summer to gain a better understanding of how often it is used. He said the highest level of occupancy during his summer-long survey was around 30 percent.
“We talk a lot in this city and with this council about pedestrian safety,” he said. “I would submit on this street, where you see people constantly walking up and down the street and constantly waiting to cross at that intersection, the loss of those 15 spaces, which are only filled to 30% capacity even in the height of summer, is well worth the gains in pedestrian safety and will better the experience you would have in that neighborhood.”
McGean pointed to other major corridors throughout town where the new repaving and streetscape projects have gained wider sidewalks.
“I encourage anyone to look at 139th Street and 141st Street which we’ve just finished,” he said. “Even go a block south and look at Bayshore Drive.”
Councilman Tony DeLuca, who chairs the town’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee, said he could support wider sidewalks on Robin Drive, but not at the expense of possibly gaining bike lanes along the corridor.
“As you all know, I’m the bike guy,” he said. “The more I look at this, the thing I support the most is a bike lane. Every time I’ve been down there, there are more bikes than people walking. We’re putting a bike rack at 28th Street as part of our pilot program. It’s one of the ones we picked because there is so much bike traffic in that area.”
McGean explained because of the width of the existing roadway, accomplishing the dual goals of widening sidewalks and gaining bike lanes would be difficult if not impossible.
“We could do wider sidewalks or bike lanes, but we couldn’t do both unless we took parking off both sides of the street,” he said.
Councilman Mark Paddack suggested tabling any vote on the proposal on Monday and allowing those in the audience concerned with the project to voice their opinions.
“I worked that neighborhood for years and there is a heck of a lot of foot traffic and bicycle traffic in this area,” he said. “I would ask the council to take a step back and let us hear from the public here tonight. I’d like to remand this back to a work session after we hear from our citizens.”
Council President Lloyd Martin said the citizens would have an opportunity to weigh in on the proposal after the council had hashed it out.
“I do want to hear from the public, but I want to hear from the council first,” he said. “It is not just about parking. It’s about public safety.”
McGean reiterated the street was going to be paved and those sloping curb cuts and driveways on the south side would have to be changed regardless of the wider sidewalk and parking issues.
When it was time for the public to weigh in, Robin Drive resident and property owner Robert Sheldon said he witnesses the parking issues along the corridor every day.
“I sit out there and watch everything going on,” he said. “The one thing I would like is more information. It seems like this is getting done without giving the residents much information.”
Sheldon pointed out the town owns a public park and has installed a fishing pier along the north side of Robin Drive, access to which would be compromised if on-street parking was eliminated.
“We have a wonderful park on Robin Drive and people park there and use it,” he said. “We put a fishing pier on Robin Drive and people park there to use that as well. I strongly oppose taking away parking spaces. I think we need to step back and look at this as rationally as we can.”
Delegate Wayne Hartman was wearing his local resident and rental property owner hat during the debate on Monday. Hartman said eliminating on-street parking in that area would create a hardship for many.
“I just want to stress just how important every one of those spots are,” he said. “I’m kind of dumbfounded on how you can even consider voting on this tonight. I have an eight-unit building in that area each with two bedrooms. Needless to say, I depend on that on-street parking for my tenants.”
Hartman suggested some parking areas could be carved out of the city-owned property along the northside of Robin Drive as a compromise.
“If you have to eliminate some parking, I’d suggest you create some new parking on some of the city-owned property on the north side of the street,” he said. “There might be at trade-off here.”
Councilman Dennis Dare said the town has adopted a policy to improve pedestrian safety and widen sidewalks where possible when larger repaving projects are undertaken.
“I just want to remind everyone about a policy we adopted,” he said. “In the past, this just would have been repaved without any changes to the sidewalks. The council has said this is something worth pursuing.”
After considerable debate, a motion was made to table the discussion and bring it back during a future work session. In the meantime, McGean and staff were instructed to review the plan and see if some of the goals can be accomplished without the loss of on-street parking. That motion passed unanimously.
