Community feedback on the streetscape concepts and overview of the redesign of Highway 75 in Sioux Center is helping shape the look of the planned new roadway.
At the recent council meeting, the Sioux Center City Council reviewed results from a recent streetscape survey, as well as feedback shared at and after the recent Highway 75 open house, where more than 200 people engaged with city staff and the design team to discuss concepts for the project. In addition to that, 91 people completed the streetscape survey, which was offered online and on paper, in both English and Spanish.
“Pedestrian safety elements and tree plantings were favored by survey takers throughout all sections of the survey,” said Maggie Landegent, City communications coordinator.
Some elements that were highly favored by a majority were also disliked by others. Planted medians in the industrial, residential, and suburban segments of the roadway were favored by more than half the survey respondents. For each of those sections, about 20 people said they disliked planted medians.
“The differences in opinion we saw in the survey results are not surprising. There are decisions in redesigning Highway 75 that we know will be difficult because they require tradeoffs, like some loss of convenience in favor of safety,” Landegent said.
The current draft of streetscape concepts for Highway 75 will be posted in Centre Mall in January.
One next step is for planning and design firm Confluence to incorporate feedback from the open house and survey as they revise the concepts. Confluence will bring those revised concepts to the local steering committee in early 2021, then share them with the wider public for review. The city council, staff, and design team are also reviewing the community feedback as the project moves forward.
At this point, the Highway 75 design team is working with DOT to define the final width of the roadway and sidewalks. This will allow the city to begin having conversations with some property owners in the next few months to get information in their hands about their property and the potential impact to equip them for future decisions.
Construction for the redesigned Highway 75 is slated for 2023-24, with completion in 2025.