Respect public process for downtown Wilson
Blindsided. It’s the only word to describe how citizens of Wilson who have been waiting and working patiently to enhance their downtown must have felt in recent weeks when several neighbors suddenly began trying to blow up the project.
Since 2019, there have been no fewer than 18 opportunities for people to learn about and give input on plans to make the Highway 22 corridor through Wilson more accessible for pedestrians. Some of these were public meetings devoted specifically to the topic, others were broader forums where this project was one of several discussed. The gatherings took place in person and online, with surveys. In April 2021, a News&Guide story invited citizens to participate in the process, as Teton County was hosting a “virtual open house” seeking feedback — the second public comment period within a year.
The outcome of this public process is a plan to install wide sidewalks on both sides of Highway 22, which the Wyoming Department of Transportation is expanding to three lanes with a center turn lane. The sidewalks will be 8 feet wide, 2 feet wider than usual, allowing bicyclists to use them in addition to pedestrians. Although these sidewalks have been called “paths,” they are narrower than the 10 to 12 feet usually required for pathways. The sidewalks will allow people walking or on bikes on both sides of the highway to access popular businesses such as Streetfood at the Stagecoach, Nora’s Fish Creek Inn and Pearl Street Bagels more easily. Safe passage to and from Wilson Elementary School and the post office is essential. A federal grant will foot the bill for construction.
With the design 90% completed and ready to be put out to bid, a coterie of agitators has stirred up hysteria, pitting neighbors against one another in a political fight over what has been a collaborative community effort. WYDOT has been involved at every step of the process and has signed off on the various design features. The plan necessitates 3-foot-high retaining walls in front of parking for several businesses, mainly where such walls already exist, and a higher embankment to protect a spring. It’s not easy to make one of the busiest highways in Wyoming safe and inviting for walking and bicycling, while working solely within the public right of way.
Opponents have yet to explain what it is they want in the plan — aside from nothing. In whipping up opposition, they have spread false information and preyed on citizens’ fears of speedy e-bikes barreling through Wilson on the wider sidewalks. Concerns about safety are legitimate, and the county continues to wrestle with the use of e-bikes on pathways, but that’s a separate issue. It’s possible that additional design features or management can address concerns about mixing bicycles and walkers, but experience on other busy highway corridors — Highway 89 near The Bird, the entire south side of West Broadway — has shown that nonmotorized travel can coexist safely with numerous access roads for businesses.
There is still time to improve the Wilson project before commissioners send it out to bid in early January, but doing nothing is not a suitable option. The streetscape of downtown Wilson today is a lousy expanse of asphalt and traffic with all the ambience of a truck stop. County commissioners who twice have approved preliminary designs should not cave to a loud minority that has come late to the conversation. Doing so would disrespect all the citizens who have participated in the democratic process thus far.