Round Two of Median Advisory Committee Discussions

The lights in the basement of were kept on later than usual last night as City Officials and Council District 14 residents shared ideas on what to do with Eagle Rock's medians. Although fewer attended this second round of Median Advisory Committee discussions, held two weeks after the first round on Nov. 30, residents who did attend were able to make some initial decisions.

While City officials such as Field Deputy Tricia Robbins and Public Projects Manager Paul Habib emphasized that they are eager to find more funds for Eagle Rock's medians, they said they're hoping to start small with a pilot median project that would serve as an example for median design and implementation elsewhere. 

"We are trying to find funds," Robbins said, adding that "plans to show," would be a start. 

Robert Gutierrez, a landscape architect for the Bureau of Street Services, provided a list of median guidelines and generic cost data at the Dec. 14 meeting. He said that the bureau continues to be receptive to the community's ideas about maintaining and improving medians. (During the first round of discussions last month, Gutierrez had said that the bureau is "generally receptive if you as a community are ready to do the maintenance.") 

"If someone does the design, we can plug these numbers in and have a good guideline for what costs might be," said Habib, referring to the usefulness of the cost data provided by Gutierrez. "There are 664,000 square feet of medians in District 14 alone," Habib noted. The annual cost of maintaining these medians is more than $100,000, he said, pointing out that funding for such projects is currently tight and the Bureau of Engineering is facing further cuts to its budget.

Although Habib and Robbins said that they are actively seeking money for the pilot median project, no funding has yet been allotted. For now, at least, it appears as though Eagle Rockers will have to develop median plans without quite knowing how much funding might eventually be available for use. 

Working toward a budget—instead of from it—may prove difficult, given that several residents have ambitious plans for Colorado Boulevard, Eagle Rock's major thoroughfare. "We want something that says what Eagle Rock is," said John Stillion, president of Collaborative Eagle Rock Beautiful, a volunteer-based nonprofit group devoted to the neighborhood's  upkeep and beautification. Stillion added that he wants to see a uniformity of drought-resistant plants in the medians.

Jane Tsong--an Eagle Rock resident who launched the environmental blog Bipediality last month in association with Mike Woodward, manager of the Rockdale Community Garden--told the meeting that she envisions a Colorado Boulevard that is more pedestrian friendly and incorporates crosswalk refuges for those traveling on foot. 

"We have to agree on something for now—not for tomorrow," said John Stillion. After some debate, residents unanimously agreed that the median on Colorado Boulevard in front of the , a charter school, should receive attention first, given its prominent location and the current lack of living vegetation in the area. 

Robbins, who has a background in urban planning, stressed the importance of a sound design for the median project. Considering that the Median Advisory Committee has no shortage of landscape architects and horticulture experts, not to mention longtime activists for nonprofit groups, city officials were hopeful that a design for a pilot median would not only be completed but would be donated for use.

"Design costs can account for one-third of the total budget," Habib told the meeting, adding: "I would like to issue a call to arms for pro bono design work."

At their next meeting, members of the Median Advisory Committee hope to form a design team as well as compile useful mapping and elevation data. Suggested dates for the next round of discussions are Jan. 12 and 13. 

Check out the Bipediality blog for some new illustrations of what a more comprehensive re-design of Colorado Boulevard might look like. 

To see cost data provided by the Bureau of Street Services, check out the Pdf file in the photos section.