The Washington Planning Board is scheduled to have a rather short pedestrian meeting today, literally and figuratively.

The board’s meeting agenda has just one action item — reviewing the proposed pedestrian plan for the city and making recommendations regarding the plan to the City Council. A $10,000 Community Transformation Grant paid for the plan. The city contracted with the Mid-East Commission to complete a comprehensive pedestrian plan.

Under contract terms, Mid-East Commission staff was to do the majority of the work to develop the plan, including a field survey to determine perceived “hot spots” for pedestrian traffic, potential of off-road connectivity and areas of development where high pedestrian traffic might occur. The commission was to facilitate any meetings of the project’s advisory committee, which, as part of its duties, was to identify any additional stakeholder groups (law enforcement, health, transportation, parks and recreation and planning) that should be interviewed to ensure their needs are addressed in the planning process.

“We did a plan in 2006 that showed where the major needs were. Not only with sidewalks but where we needed some intersection cuts, curb cuts for handicapped accessibility,” said John Rodman, the city’s community and cultural resources director, about three years ago during a City Council meeting. “What we want to do now is update that plan, see where we are and see where the needs still exist. … Traditionally, you do an update of a plan every five or six years just to see what we’ve accomplished.”

Rodman said the new plan would further identify priority pedestrian areas in the city.

The plan will follow the N.C. Department of Transportation’s expanded municipal pedestrian plan template and address several items, including, but not limited to, the following:

• immediate concerns and long-term aspirations;
• an explanation of the benefits of walking;
• system map showing each proposed project according to location and type;
• specific project identification and priority list;
• cost estimates for proposed facilities.

The Jack’s Creek greenway is included in the pedestrian plan. On its west side, the greenway would skirt Veterans Memorial Park on East Third Street. The greenway is a linear park system that runs from just south of the Bobby Andrews Recreation Center on East Seventh Street to the Pamlico River.