Stanley Avenue Sidewalk
The City is exploring alternatives and funding options to construct a sidewalk along Stanley Avenue to fill the gap in the sidewalk network that exists between W 84th Street and Nine Mile Creek Parkway. This sidewalk gap has been identified as a safety concern by residents in the neighborhood and in the development of the Poplar Bridge Elementary Safe Routes to School Plan. Gaps in the sidewalk network push pedestrians into the roadway. The options being explored for sidewalk construction will have goals to add an off-road pedestrian sidewalk, provide traffic calming for Stanley Avenue, and minimize impacts to the right-of-way and residential integrity of this roadway.
Background
At the public open house with the Stanley and Nine Mile Creek Parkway residents earlier in the summer of 2024, several residents indicated that having sidewalk along Stanley Avenue would be a safety improvement for the walkers in the neighborhood. Since there is sidewalk along Nine Mile Creek Parkway and along W 84th Street, there is a gap in the sidewalk network along Stanley Avenue. At that time, City staff indicated they would explore options for sidewalk and bring them back to the residents.
Stanley Avenue is a priority location for sidewalk for the following reasons:
- The Active Transportation Action Plan lays out a plan for improving active transportation options and safety across the City; and
- Stanley Avenue carries higher traffic volumes than a typical local roadway (greater than 1000 vpd) which is a best practice threshold for providing pedestrian facilities separated from traffic; and
- There is a gap in the sidewalk network through Stanley Avenue (to connect sidewalk on Nine Mile Creek Parkway to sidewalk on W 84th Street); and
- Stanley Avenue is within the walking boundary of Poplar Bridge Elementary and sidewalk on Stanley is identified as a targeted safety improvement in the Safe Routes to School Plan for Poplar Bridge Elementary.
A public open house was held on Tuesday, December 3, 2024, from 6 PM to 7:30 PM in the Poplar Bridge Elementary School Cafeteria, to discuss the option of adding sidewalk along Stanley Avenue between W 84th Street and Nine Mile Creek Parkway.
Sidewalk (preliminary) design options to consider:
- Construct sidewalk on the west side of Stanley Avenue;
- Construct sidewalk on the east side of Stanley Avenue (this option is ruled out because of the grades of the yards on this side of the road and the need to construct retaining walls if built on this side); and
- Narrow the roadway and construct sidewalk on the west side of Stanley Avenue (would help to preserve some trees and provide some road narrowing traffic calming results, but would require not allowing parking on one side of the road).
All residents are welcome to attend. If you are unable to attend, feel free to reach out to City staff to discuss. You can join the open house at any time between 6:00 pm and 7:30 pm as this will be an open house format and there will be no presentation.
At the December 16, 2024 City Council meeting the Council was presented with the resident input (from the open house and survey), previous open houses in the area where comments about the sidewalk gap were discussed, the City's Active Transportation Action Plan objectives, and the Safe Routes to School Plan for Poplar Bridge Elementary, along with a recommended option to support. With that information, the City Council provided a resolution of support for Staff to move forward with a funding application in the Minnesota Safe Routes to School Infrastructure solicitation to narrow the road and construct sidewalk along Stanley Avenue.
This action also resulted in Stanley Avenue being removed from the 2025 overlay project planning and being held until there is a SRTS funding decision for this roadway.
With the notice of Safe Routes to School Funding award to support the construction costs of this pedestrian safety improvement project, staff will begin design work for the project, with construction anticipated in 2026.
