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Wondering about the latest updates in the 32nd Street Revitalization project?
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32 Renewed Community Meeting
The North 32nd St. Corridor Plan Meeting for PHASE ONE took place on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014 5:30pm at Shea Middle School Cafeteria, 2728 E. Shea Blvd.
The North 32nd Street Corridor is a citizen driven effort to improve the conditions along 32nd Street. The Corridor is approximately eight miles and runs from State Route 51 to the Loop 101 Freeway
There were over 60 people from the community who attended. Vice Mayor Bill Gates spoke as well as Deputy Director Ray Dovalina, and Craig Mavis from the Paradise Valley Village Planning Committee.
The meeting recapped the several urban planning studies that had taken place. The coalition, the 32nd Street Working Group, started meeting in the spring of 2012 and formed three subcommittees to focus on specific issues. In addition, reports related to the North 32nd Street Corridor were provided by Arizona State University and the Urban Land Institute.
The results:
There is approx $2 million dollars being invested in the corridor. The main focus right now is a “road diet” to remove unnecessary lanes to accommodate bike lanes and medians.
They are also going to upgrade the road and provide funding for art to decorate the streets.
There was talk about bringing in condos to increase some street traffic to drive more business in the corridor.
The activity we worked on was was looking at the map of the corridor and coloring in areas we felt could be revamped, areas to stay the same and areas to be completely redone.
The maps will be taken into consideration when the final stage is presented to the city council.
Here are the results from Phase One mapping.
Any questions or comments Vice Mayor Bill Gates can be reached at Bill.Gates@Phoenix.gov
The next planning meeting was scheduled for phase 2
Monday, March 24th 5:30PM
Phase 2 Community meeting (32nd Street between Sweetwater Avenue and Paradise Lane) at The Rock at 32nd Street (13625 North 32nd Street). Project overview (history, ULI/ASU/Subcommittee report) and group mapping exercise to determine areas of stability, retrofit and change.
Here were the results from Phase 2’s mapping exercise.
AZ Republic article about a livelier North 32nd street
Special for The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Jun 21, 2013 1:34 PM
The area of north 32nd Street in northeast Phoenix will see improvements over the next few years, including repaved roads, new sidewalks and bike lanes.
Officials hope the improvements will help in the community’s effort to revitalize the neighborhood.
The area — between Arizona 51 on the south and Union Hills Drive on the north — is the focus of the 32nd Street Corridor Working Group, assembled by Vice Mayor Bill Gates and Councilman Jim Waring.
Photo by Rob Schumacher/The Republic
The group has met about a half-dozen times to discuss solutions to enhance the area, Gates said, adding that some of the meetings have attracted “50, 60, 70 people.”
“My district is essentially all built out … so it’s about taking what we have already and getting creative,” Gates said.
Decline linked to Arizona 51
The corridor has experienced a major decline since the installation of Arizona 51 beyond Shea Boulevard in 1999.
“Since I came on the council, the corridor has been a focus,” Gates said. “After the freeway was built, a lot of people would simply jump on the 51 and drive elsewhere.”
That traffic took northeast Phoenix residents to newer, trendier shopping spots like Kierland Commons and Desert Ridge Marketplace.
The result was from 19 to 20 percent vacancies along the 32nd Street corridor, and a drop in street traffic from 40,000 vehicles per day to between 15,000 to 18,000 vehicles, city officials said.
But Gates sees the vacant areas as opportunities for innovative and collaborative projects, and he said he wants to revitalize the proud history of the once-heavy retail area.
Gates represents Phoenix District 3, which is bordered by Bell Road, Northern Avenue, Interstate 17 and 64th Street.
Inspired by other areas
The non-profit Urban Land Institute, which specializes in researching land use and development issues, helped identify what projects — such as bike lanes or landscaping — or events they could develop to draw new businesses, residents and shoppers to the area.
The city applied and received a grant from the Maricopa Association of Governments to repave and restripe the street, add sidewalk room for pedestrians and construct medians, Gates said. By eliminating one lane, the corridor will become a five-lane configuration, and the city will create two bicycle lanes on both sides of 32nd Street.
“Right now, there are no bike lanes on 32nd Street, and it’s difficult,” said John Barker, a landscape architect and consultant who helped design a logo for the group. “We’ve looked at doing some temporary cost-effective enhancements to beautify the area.”
Officials are modeling the renovations after Melrose on Seventh Avenue and 16th Street and Bethany Home Road, Gates said. Both were once-vibrant urban retail areas that risked languishing in the 1990s, but were revitalized by amenities that made the centers more pedestrian- and bike-friendly.
“The folks in the area have been inspired by other areas of revitalization,” Gates said. “They can sort of imagine their neighborhoods can have that.”
The street project will take about two years to complete in addition to six months of construction, Barker said.
Ray Dovalina, assistant director of the Street Transportation Department, said the project will receive $445,000, but the city can’t use the funds until fiscal 2016. However, Gates said the city could potentially begin work and use the grant money to pay the city back.
“We are trying to get a design plan started before the end of this calendar year,” Dovalina said.
Gates said the city is working with the Parks Department to include public-art pieces with the project. And the group also has discussed utilizing the nearby preserve. One idea: create a major biking event.
Attracting new business
Gates said the revitalization efforts already have attracted some youth- and family-oriented businesses.
“We’ve been working with the Mayor’s Office to give the area a push forward, and we are encouraging businesses to work with each other,” Gates said. “We’ve been very fortunate to attract some new entities.”
A noteworthy partnership between Genesis Church and Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock recently celebrated its one-year anniversary. What was once a vacant strip mall for two years, the Rock at 32nd Street is now a functional church and full-service community center.
Lead Pastor Pat Stark, 49, said he chose the North 32nd Street location because of the socio-economic diversity of upper- and lower-income communities and room to grow. After existing as a “set up and tear down” church for 10 years, Stark was ready to open a church with a Monday-through-Saturday community center.
The collaboration began with a mutual friend who was both a member of the church and on the board of Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock. The two organizations had similar visions and have since gained three new tenants in their building and seen a 20 percent growth in congregation.
“Because of our early partnerships, we’ve hopefully set the tone that there needs to be more collaboration for growth,” Stark said.
In addition to the Rock, businesses such as the Original Breakfast House, at Thunderbird Road and 32nd Street, and Basis charter school have opened in the area.
Gates said the community has a big role in the project, which has three citizen-driven and community-led subcommittees.
“One of the best things about the project is great neighborhood involvement,” Gates said. “People who grew up in this neighborhood are coming back to start their families.”
KJZZ Arizona’s NPR station covers North 32nd St Revitalization
KJZZ Covers the North 32nd St Revitalization. Updated 8/5/13
A five mile stretch of North 32nd Street was once one of the busiest corridors in the city, but things are not looking so vibrant anymore.
Standing outside 32 Shea restaurant, the scene is harsh and noisy. Cars zip past at 40 or 50 miles an hour. There are not many pedestrians walking by, and there is no shade to be had on the sidewalk, but step inside the restaurant, and you are surrounded by dark walls with bright flashes of color and the din of people talking and eating.
“My whole intention was to take downtown and bring it into ‘Up-Uptown,’ and to really create a cool vibe in an area that had once been thriving and died,” said Rebecca Golden, 32 Shea’s owner. Rebecca Golden owns the restaurant 32 Shea, located at the intersection of — you guessed it — 32nd Street and Shea.
(Photo by Nick Blumberg – KJZZ)
32nd Street in Up-Uptown, as Golden calls it, used to be a huge traffic corridor from Shea up to Union Hills, but when State Route 51 was extended, that diverted so much traffic away from this street that businesses died off left and right.
The street is really wide, and most of the stores are set back from the sidewalk. Golden’s restaurant is one of the exceptions. She is in a tiny standalone building at the outer edge of a strip mall. She gave a tour of its kitchen.
“As you see, we use every inch of space that we possibly can from bottom to top. We’ve even started stacking units on top of units in here to get everything to fit,” Golden said.
That efficiency could be a model for Golden’s neighbors. A report from last year found on average nearby shopping centers are 20 percent empty. This stretch of street straddles Districts 2 and 3.
Leaders from both have come together for the North 32nd Street Revitalization Project. They hope to tackle problems like desolate strip malls and a street that is far too wide.
Ray Dovalina is Phoenix’s assistant street transportation director. He said at its peak this corridor carried a little more than 40,000 vehicles a day. Ray Dovalina, assistant street transportation director for the city of Phoenix.
(Photo by Nick Blumberg – KJZZ)
“At this point, it’s carrying roughly between 15 and 18,000 vehicles per day,” Dovalina said.
So the city is putting 32nd Street on a road diet. That means just what it sounds like, shrinking the number of lanes to make it more bikeable (more on that in a little bit) and more walkable. Except for bus shelters, there is hardly any shade on the sidewalk. Dovalina said fixing that can be tricky.
“We need to be able to not only implement, but also we have to operate and maintain that in perpetuity, basically,” Dovalina said. Joseph Perez, bicycle coordinator for the city of Phoenix. He rides that bicycle to work every day, rain or shine.
(Photo by Nick Blumberg – KJZZ)
To that end, the city’s pursuing public-private agreements and grant money to add trees and shade structures. Another focus for the 32nd Street revitalization is adding bike lanes.
City Bicycle Coordinator Joseph Perez said when it comes to biking, people fall into several categories. The largest covers about 60 percent of the population and it’s called “interested but concerned.”
“And they want to have bike lanes, they want to feel safe, they want to feel like when they ride people know where they are,” Perez said. “We can greatly expand the numbers of bicyclists by providing those bike lanes and shared lane markings and other infrastructure.”
To start capturing that kind of rider, the city has budgeted $1 million for bike infrastructure. Some of it will be closer to the center of town where Phoenix plans to roll out a bike share program at the end of the year, and some of the money is for farther out areas.
That is good news for Josh Schoville. He lives at 26th Street and Shea Boulevard and often bikes down 32nd Street which he laughs is, “a little hairy. It’s, uh … not fun.”
This map shows the vacancy rates of the shopping centers along 32nd Street between Shea Boulevard and Union Hills in Phoenix, according to the 32nd Street Revitalization Project report. (Map graphic by Amanda Berry and Julie Levin-KJZZ)
But for Schoville it is worth it, especially to come to 32 Shea.
“You can sit outside with your dog, and you can bike here. Get a breakfast burrito and some coffee for breakfast, come in in the evening after work and get a cold beer on a hot day,” Schoville said.
Schoville wants his neighborhood to have more places like this, locally owned, unique, easy to bike and walk to. Golden is happy to be a part of the changing 32nd street, and she wants to see more, but as every business owner knows…
“It’s going to take time and money, as with everything,” Golden said. “Time and money.”
Development on 32nd Street is moving forward. The North 32nd st revitalization project’s working group will likely meet next in September after the council elections are over, and the city hopes to start road work as early as spring of next year.