Lake Park 2025 (4-8-23)

With the new stop light coming to the Hamlet Avenue / Lake Park Blvd intersection, now is a good time to introduce you to “Lake Park 2025.” (My term… nothing official.)

In 2025 Lake Park Blvd from the bridge to Carolina Sands Drive will be repaved. This is a DOT road, and therefore a DOT project. It will be done on their dime and on their timeframe. (So you never know, it could be delayed.)

When it is repaved, it needs new striping, and that is our opportunity to make changes with a fresh slate… and as a bonus, DOT will pay for it. So we’re discussing what we’d like to do. Last summer we put some committees to work looking at the issue. Operations, Beautification and Bike/Ped all looked at the corridor and made recommendations. Our goal is to make a formal proposal to the DOT in 2023.

Meanwhile other changes to the Lake Park Corridor are underway, so please read on to learn about them. I’ll tell you what I know, or what I think… depending on the situation.

1… Publix Intersection. I’d like to see a better pedestrian crossing situation here. (We should have made Publix do it, but that’s a complaint for another day.) We can ask DOT to upgrade the intersection with a crosswalk and pedestrian signal. You may have noticed that as you leave the ACE Hardware there’s no signal on that side. I think there should be.

2… The Proximity Corridor. The developers will put in a wide sidewalk along their Lake Park frontage. (That’s good.) I hope that we can work together to extend the wide sidewalk all the way to Winner Avenue. (That would be even better.) The main entrance to Proximity is right in the center of the development. It will be “right in, right out.” Meaning no left turns to gum up the traffic.

3… Winner Avenue. The Proximity developers offered $300,000 to contribute to an intersection improvement here. I’m obsessed with making a safe crossing here for bikes/peds coming from St. Joseph. It won’t be perfect, but it’s the best we can do. (Ideas are welcome!) Yes, it will probably result in another stoplight, making 5 through the heart of our town.

The hope here is to make this small road a nice connection between ST. Joseph’s Street, Proximity, the west side of town, and all the fun businesses in that area. (I do enjoy a Guinness at Hoplite.)

4… St. Joseph Street Intersection. I’m not a fan of this intersection. It’s confusing and dangerous. I’ve lived here for 20 years and I still get mixed up. There is no Council consensus on this one, but I’ll tell you my opinion. I think it should also be “right in, right out.) The left turns are fatalities waiting to happen.

5… The Downtown Corridor. This is the section of Lake Park from Harper to Charlotte, with all the diagonal parking. The Operations Committee studied this, and they think we should remove the parking all together. A bold idea. Pros… it would eliminate the back out parking which is sketchy. It would eliminate the huge trucks parked in the drive lane. It would eliminate the vehicles hanging over the sidewalks. It would allow people to see the businesses. Cons… it would eliminate a bunch of parking! (What do you think?)

I do hate the angled parking, but I’m just not sure what to do.

6… Cape Fear Blvd. There is now a left turn arrow for traffic headed west from Cape Fear. (Thank you DOT.) I have been told that is the most dangerous spot in town. It’s where baby Cora was killed and another person was hit last year. The left turn arrow will allow pedestrians to cross more safely, but we may not be done yet. There is a serious discussion being had about making Cape Fear east of Lake Park a one-way street, east only. (Toward the Boardwalk for the directionally impaired.) And making Canal Drive a one-way street also, headed north. At this point it’s being studied, that is all. (What do you think?)

https://mikehoffer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Cape_Fear_Canal.pdf

7… Hamlet Ave. The new stoplight is going in soon, along with 3 pedestrian crossings. Two for crossing Hamlet (east and west side of Lake Park) and 1 for crossing Lake Park (where the current crosswalk is.)  

I support this. It came from a Bike/Ped Committee recommendation waaaay back in 2018. (Thank you LeAnn Pierce for pushing it forward. Does everybody remember her?) I could do a whole separate article about how unsafe this intersection is. I don’t love stoplights anymore than the next guy, but you know what I really don’t like? Dead pedestrians!

8… South Lake Park Corridor. This is another one that deserves its own article. After years of study the Bike/Ped Committee and I believe that the best scenario here is to add bike lanes and remove all parking from the west side of Lake Park. (7 spaces.) There is no room for sidewalks with the current road width and making any big changes would be super expensive because of all the utilities in play. 1/2 million dollars for 1/3 mile of sidewalk? I couldn’t look a Canal Drive resident in face and propose that.

Why remove the west side parking? Because like it or not, that’s where the pedestrians are and the cars parked along with trash cans, power poles and mailboxes leave the pedestrians with no choice but to walk out in traffic.

We can extend the sidewalk a short distance from the lake (on our property) and then seek to add sidewalks a little bit at a time as opportunities arise.

9… Spartanburg Ave Crosswalk. I want it. You want it. We all want it. So what’s the hold up? Staff just hasn’t been pushing DOT hard on this, because they’re backed up with a lot of other stuff. What can I say?

And that folks, is the story of Lake Park Blvd. Rest assured that I’m going to support the options that make it nicer for bikes and pedestrians. (Shocker.) I want to hear your thoughts. I will follow this up with a Joe Benson style public forum in the near future.

Much love,

Mike