Public Asked To Help Envision Angels Camp Improvement Plan
Angels Camp, CA – Tonight the public is invited to weigh in on a local multi-agency planning effort to revitalize downtown Angels Camp and Highway 49 corridor.
The project, made possible with a nearly $200,000 Caltrans Sustainable Cities grant, is a collaboration between the transportation agency, City of Angels Camp and Calaveras Council of Governments. It will focus on planning and design for the area between the intersection of Vallecito Road along the 49 corridor to the Murphys Grade intersection.
“The grant is looking at our downtown…and our midtown area in terms of street design…circulation, land use, and those areas,” explains David Hanham, City of Angels director of planning and building. He emphasizes, “We are looking for public input to [determine] what they want to see in their downtown, how they want to see it look, how they want to be able to get around downtown and midtown easily from other parts of the city. We are also looking at design guidelines in the downtown — so with public input, it gives us a good idea of what the community wants to see.”
Hanham admits that the city has not previously given long-term planning focus in terms of envisioning what people might see in the next 20 years, including how people would be able to get around, park, and what it would actually look like. , that part has not been done…hopefully we will get really good input from the public and be able to move forward in that way. Tonight’s meeting, and two more planned for later this year are designed to change that.
Hear, Add To ‘Angels Camp Vision’
Beginning at 5:30 p.m., a two-hour public session in the Bret Harte Union High School multipurpose room design consultant the Design Team will provide an initial overview presentation. It will be followed by an informal, interactive information gathering session, which Hanham says will utilize posting boards and touch pads to gather ideas and data. In the days following a SurveyMonkey survey will become available so that those who are not able to make the meeting may also provide input.
Riffing possible ideas, Hanham provides some personal thoughts like downtown parklets, an entertainment area, and more condensed parking to help other areas expand, such as for outdoor dining as well as to improve pedestrian safety. “In a nutshell, what these public meetings are for…to get the community out to take a look and ask the questions of ‘what are you doing, what do we want and how do we get there’, those types of things,” he points out.
Looking forward, Hanham projects that a second public meeting, which will happen sometime in the fall, will bring back design options based on the collected input. By the time the third session comes around, Hanham says that the project organizers hope to have formalized plans ready to present, ahead of acceptance by Caltrans, public hearings and final adoption. For more details about the process, click here.
