A plan to upgrade Merced's Martin Luther King Jr. Way is the latest local casualty of Gov. Jerry Brown's elimination of redevelopment agencies.
Tonight, the Merced City Council is scheduled to review the Martin Luther King Jr. Way revitalization plan, a proposal to make road and infrastructure improvements along the corridor, which is also known as Highway 59, with hopes of improving safety for residents and supporting economic growth.
A little more than two years ago, the city was awarded about $250,000 in grant funds by Caltrans to prepare the plan. City officials formed a committee of residents and members of the business community to help devise it.
Its key objectives were to improve transportation options; enhance safety; support economic growth; assess the feasibility of new office, commercial and residential uses in the area; and determine ways to cross the bustling highway safely.
However, Merced's redevelopment agency was one of roughly 400 eliminated statewide because state legislators passed a law effectively ending the agencies Feb. 1. Because of the state's ongoing budget woes, Brown wants to use redevelopment agency money to help pay for services such as education and public safety.
Mike Conway, Merced's spokesman, said a significant chunk of the funds to make the revitalization plan possible would have come from redevelopment. Unless Caltrans can help with grants, or other sources of funding are found, Conway said the revitalization plan will be shelved, at least for the time being.
"Without redevelopment, we have to find a Plan B," Conway said.
"During the revitalization committee's meetings, redevelopment was an active agency," he added. "This is all a recent development, and the committee did not really have a chance to take that in."
Carl Pollard, a former city councilman who sits on the revitalization plan committee, said he's hopeful council members will approve the plan tonight, though the state's budget woes obviously pose a challenge to it becoming reality.
Pollard said it's unfortunate the elimination of the redevelopment agency puts some parts of the plan at square one. Still, he's hopeful the city will seek creative methods, through private investment and other sources, to move the plan forward.
Pollard and his 13 fellow committee members, who were appointed by the City Council, met nearly a dozen times over the past year, brainstorming about priorities that needed to be addressed in the plan.
The plan looks at quality of life issues, such as having proper sidewalks, but Pollard also emphasized that the Martin Luther King Jr. Way/Highway 59 corridor is a major entry point to the city. As such, Pollard said the area should be given the "tender loving care" it deserves.
"A lot of traffic goes through there," Pollard said. "It's a major thoroughfare. (People are coming from) Los Banos, the Bay Area, San Jose, Highway 152. It's a major part of our city. We should not neglect it."
The revitalization plan area is bordered to the north and south by 13th Street and Childs Avenue respectively, and west and east by M and G streets.
When the city applied to Caltrans for the planning grant, the issues identified in the corridor area included:
A lack of a complete sidewalk and bicycle system.
The high level of truck traffic, causing strain on the highway's efficiency.
The difficulty in finding sites for regional retail and professional centers because of traffic congestion and misalignment of local roads.
The abundance of mothers pushing strollers and senior citizens walking along the shoulder of the highway as traffic rushes by.
Despite the elimination of the redevelopment agency, the city staff hopes to use the plan to seek other grants, such as for safe routes to schools, that could be applied in creating pedestrian crossings on Highway 99.
Even with approval by the City Council, the plan would have to be supported by Caltrans before it could move forward.
The grant money used for the revitalization plan study could not be used to pay for personnel, such as public safety employees, according to Conway.
Managing Editor Victor A. Patton can be reached at (209) 385-2431 or vpatton@mercedsunstar.com.
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