A plan for Nord Avenue

Imagine Nord Avenue with tree-lined streets, storefronts right next to wide sidewalks, and wide, clearly marked bike lanes—an esthetically pleasing, pedestrian- and bicyclist-friendly roadway. It’s a dream, but now, with the creation of a new plan for transforming the roadway, it’s not a fantasy.

The current state of this section of state Highway 32 is, well, pretty bad. Sidewalks are discontinuous and, where they do exist, only wide enough for one person. Bike lanes are nonexistent or poorly designated. There are driveways, cars backed up at intersections, ugly parking lots, and apartment complexes set back from the street, as if to avoid having to look at it.

It is, in other words, a classic example of a badly planned street on which the automobile has been allowed to dominate, to the detriment of pedestrians and bicyclists, even though it is heavily used by both groups, especially students making their way to and from Chico State University.

Enter Glatting Jackson, an urban-design consulting company from Orlando, Fla., hired by Butte County and the city of Chico to design a new Nord Avenue that is more pedestrian-friendly and attractive to residents and business owners alike. The company’s hope is that a new, improved infrastructure along the street will encourage property owners, over the next 30 years, to build storefronts and housing right up to the street. Studies have shown that when stores and residents “embrace” the street, people enjoy walking on it.

“You build it and they will come,” said Dan Burden, senior urban designer at Glatting Jackson and nationally known as an expert on “walkable communities.”

One major problem is the “anemic” sidewalks on Nord Avenue, Burden said. There are narrow stretches of sidewalk that make it impossible for two people to walk side-by-side, and in some places the sidewalk disappears altogether, forcing pedestrians to walk in the street.

Also, the lack of crosswalks, abundance of driveways and narrow bike lanes make the street dangerous for bicyclists.

“We’ve seen more wrong-way riders here than anywhere else in the North America,” Burden said. “It would be dangerous to ride the right way.”

To remedy the problem, Burden hopes to implement wider bike lanes, separated from the road by a median, and zigzag crosswalks that will force pedestrians and drivers to face each other for safer crossing.

The firm also addressed the presence of “super-blocks,” long city blocks with no alternate access roads. The proposed plan would construct alternate routes and side streets to access homes and alleviate traffic congestion.

The proposed improvements would be as beneficial to property owners as to pedestrians, Burden said. Single-use commercial land that is currently valued at $5 to $15 per square foot could increase in value to $25 to $35 if the property owners were willing to incorporate a mix of commercial and residential uses, like apartments or office space above stores and restaurants.

Another concern brought to the firm’s attention is the obstacle of the nearby Union Pacific train tracks, particularly with regard to emergency services. Many residents of the area said they wanted an underpass that would allow traffic to cross the tracks, which run parallel to Nord Avenue. The plan presented by Glatting Jackson showed an underpass at West Sacramento Avenue, but such a project is an undertaking that would need its own study, Burden said.

Butte County Supervisor Jane Dolan, whose District 2 includes Nord Avenue, persuaded the city and county to hire Glatting Jackson to hold a series of three public workshops June 15-21 and, working with suggestions from community members, come up with a plan for making the roadway corridor more functional and attractive over the next 30 to 40 years.

“The first priorities are to fill in sidewalk gaps and improve lighting and safety,” Dolan said. Eventually the state Department of Transportation will have to be involved in upgrading the highway.

The current state of Nord Avenue makes it difficult for children to walk or bike to Emma Wilson Elementary School, which sits just one block west of the thoroughfare.

Glatting Jackson talked to a class of fifth-graders at the school to see how the street could be improved to suit their needs. The planners found that none of the children in the class had walked or biked to school that day, although many of them lived within three blocks.

Regina Walker, who has a son attending Emma Wilson Elementary School, attended the workshop to see how the area could be improved.

“I thought it would be nice to be able to bike to the school,” Walker said. “I’m surprised there weren’t more parents here.”