The city of North Royalton has again been awarded a grant to fund a sidewalk project. Mayor Bob Stefanik recently announced the award, which was one of two applications made. This will be the third in recent years. The grant was in the amount of $100,000, and was awarded through the Transportation for Livable Community Initiative (TLCI), administered through the Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA). The section of the sidewalk will run from Memorial Park on State Road, south, to Akins Road. The second application for $205,000 would have extended that sidewalk from Akins Road, south, to Valley Parkway.
The purpose of the TLCI is to improve the livability in the communities of Northeast Ohio through the support of NOACA’s Regional Strategic Plan and long-range transportation plan. This is done through their assistance to communities “to develop transportation planning studies that facilitate and promote sustainable development, multimodel transportation and complete and green streets; and to provide funding assistance for communities to implement priority projects identified in TLCI or TLCI-like community developed plans,” according to the NOACA Planning and Programming Committee.
North Royalton initially received funding for a comprehensive sidewalk study as part of the Alternative Transportation Plan. The plan analyzed existing conditions and provided short and long term recommendations, including feasibility studies and implementation strategies. The plan encourages complete and green streets, and activities that promote sustainable development and several modes of transportation. These activities include development plans that are transit-oriented; land use and transportation plans for redevelopment; pedestrian and bicycle network plans; traffic calming plans for neighborhoods and economic development plans that are based upon the investment in transportation. Stefanik noted that the study has been very instrumental in the attainment of the grants that it has already secured, as the projects were recommended in the study.
Seventeen areas were recommended to have sidewalks installed. Many on stretches of State, Royalton and York Roads. According to the study, “while just over half of the town center has sidewalks, the remainder of the city lacks adequate sidewalk connections. . . To cultivate the town center and increase access to its destinations and amenities, it is important to focus on creating a sidewalk network that enables connections in and around the district. Based on the existing conditions analysis and public input from the survey and public meeting, a list of prioritized sidewalk connections was developed. The connections, taken as a whole, would greatly increase connectivity to and within the town center and between residential areas, and would enhance recreational opportunities in proximity to the Valley Parkway multiuse path.”
Last year, the city submitted an application and received a grant for $121,000 from(NOACA) funding to extend the multi-use path that runs from Rt. 82, south, to North Akins Road on Bennett Road. The request extends the asphalt path from South Akins Road, south, to the MetroPark’s Valley Parkway. That path will connect all existing sidewalks near the center of the city to the All-Purpose Trail being completed by the MetroParks. According to Community Development Director Tom Jordan, the final design of this project is expected this week and will then be bid out. Construction of this project is expected next year.
The city also received $108,000 in funding for a sidewalk that connects Memorial Park to Route 82 on State Road. ODOT is also handling that project and is in the midst of the bidding process, according to Mayor Bob Stefanik.
By GLORIA PLEVA KACIK
Contributing Writer