PORT ANGELES — A team led by consultant Bill Grimes will evaluate the state of Railroad Avenue and how to better welcome visitors who arrive in Port Angeles by ferry.
Grimes, an architect and engineer who is president of Studio Cascade of Spokane, is the principal consultant for the city’s Waterfront and Transportation Improvement Plan.
The planning extends beyond the downtown waterfront — encompassing all areas in the categories of signs and transportation — but Railroad Avenue is the focus, Grimes told an audience at Monday’s Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
Railroad extends from Lincoln Street to Oak Street along the waterfront.
Properties fronting it include the port of entry from the MV Coho and Victoria Express, The Landing mall and shops and restaurants.
“Waterfront redesign came directly from the AIA [American Institute of Architects], and there was direct attention to Railroad Avenue,” Grimes said of AIA consultants who visited Port Angeles in 2009.
“We are hoping to achieve not only the minimum of creating a design for the parts of Railroad Avenue that are in the public right of way, but to also stimulate the private investment along the street.”
Architectural team
Grimes and his design team will be discussing their plans and hearing what residents and local businesses have to say during four days of public outreach.
Team members will be available Sept. 27 through 30 at 106 N. Laurel Ave.
An exact schedule during those days is still pending.
“If you can stop in for just a little bit and we can talk a little bit about what we’re doing — but most importantly we want to hear what you hope to get out of this process,” Grimes said.
A website will be up soon at www.pa-waterfront.org.
A few things Grimes said he noticed when doing preliminary research was that people didn’t have a good sense on where to go in downtown Port Angeles once they disembarked ferries from Victoria.
“They seem to stop at the curb where they try and decide where to go,” he said.
Another thing he noticed was that a Clallam Transit lane, which is for transit traffic only at The Gateway transit center, is close to the terminal and has up to five “do not enter” signs.
Unwelcome signs
“So just after getting off the ferry, the first thing you see in Port Angeles is five signs saying do not enter,” he said.
He also pointed out that one restaurant in the area switches menus just as one of the ferries to Victoria prepares to leave — which means food cannot be quickly served up to passengers leaving town.
“I hear again and again that Port Angeles is not Victoria,” he said.
“Now whether they mean that we have tried to be Victoria and failed or just organically we are not Victoria, I don’t know.
“People go to Victoria to go to Victoria. People come to Port Angeles to visit the Peninsula or go somewhere else.
“But if there is a way that we can capture that traffic that is on its way to somewhere else, that is what we want to do.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
