How the Community is Participating

  • The PEL study has a local agency group (LAG) made up of representatives from the three communities along Washtenaw Avenue, regional agencies, Washtenaw County, and elected officials. This group is responsible for providing technical guidance on the project process to ensure that the recommendations of the plan are feasible and reflect the desires of the communities. To date, five LAG meetings have occurred, with the most recent occurring on September 19, 2024.

  • The first public meeting for the Washtenaw Avenue PEL Study was held on March 2, 2023, at the Washtenaw County Learning Resource Center. Feedback stations were organized around travel modes and participants had the opportunity to provide input on the current conditions and community desires for improving walking, bicycling, transit use, and driving in the corridor. Additionally, participants were encouraged to give feedback on the draft Purpose and Need Statement.

    The second public meeting was held virtually. An ArcGIS Online StoryMap was created to conduct a fully online open house where participants could learn about the project progress, review the draft alternatives, and submit input on their own time. The StoryMap included background about the project and presented potential design alternatives that fulfill the goals outlined by the Purpose and Need Statement. In total, nearly 3,000 people visited the site and more than 340 survey responses were submitted by participants. The comments were compiled and analyzed by the project team and used to refine the illustrative alternatives into the practical alternatives.

    The third round of public meetings was an open house held on Thursday, February 1st, 2024, at Washtenaw County Community College. Approximately 100 people attended the open house and the Consultant team received 65 paper responses to the 12-question survey.The goal of Public Meeting 3 was to gather reactions on the remaining design alternatives to further understand the community’s priorities.

  • As a virtual alternative to share project-related feedback with the design team, an online comment form was made available on the Washtenaw Avenue PEL website. To date, the project team has received 100-plus comments, many of which reflect the feedback received at the public meeting.

Feedback gathered from Workshop 1, 2, and 3

Image of project area map with sticky notes tapped on. The sticky notes have comments from community members.
Graphic depicting comments received from community members.
Pie chart that shows which mode of transportation should be prioritized according to workshop participants. The top choices are public transit, driving, and biking.
Graph depicting the highest priority amongst community members for Washtenaw Avenue. The top choices are safety improvements for all users, pedestrian and bicycle connectivity, and frequent and reliable transit service.
graph showing design features that are most desired for Washtenaw Avenue. The top choices were sidewalks, bike lanes, and street trees and landscaping.
A bar chart showing workshop participants varying levels of comfort with biking on Washtenaw Avenue. Most respondents were most uncomfortable with unprotected, on-street bike lanes, while being most comfortable with an off-street, shared path.