Editorial: City listened to residents on Lincoln road project

What a difference four years and healthy communication makes. In 2006 homeowners along South Bernard Street held a candlelight vigil, tacked yellow ribbons to the trunks of their doomed trees and wept on their lawns as their trees were chopped down to make way for a city street repair project.

This week, the final work in a $1.7 million project is winding down less than six blocks away on South Lincoln Street from 17th to 29th avenues. It appears that this time the process was as smooth as the newly paved streets.

The city has scheduled an opening ceremony for Thursday morning.

The Bernard project was so controversial that it engendered a lawsuit. It may have led to the ouster of a mayor and the election of a new city council member. The Lincoln project, preceded by lengthy and thorough discussions with property owners, seems set to wrap up next week with scarcely a ripple of contention.

Apparently, the city learned from its mistakes. While there is no bringing back the welcoming canopy of the old Bernard maples and sycamores, there were trees to preserve along Lincoln and elsewhere in the city and new goals to accomplish.

It now appears to residents of the Manito/Cannon Hill neighborhood that a city street repair project cannot only avoid infuriating property owners, it can also calm traffic, save money and improve the landscape.

As Lincoln reopens, drivers will notice the street appears narrower. Much of the street parking space has been replaced by swales designed to filter pollutants from rainwater. These swales have been filled with storm gardens containing hardy plants that will help soak up run-off.

The gardens will provide a visual cue to remind drivers to avoid zooming through the neighborhood.

City officials worked hard to meet with property owners, listen to their concerns and offer them choices.

When an innovative idea arose to combine street repair with wastewater management, residents were asked whether they wanted to add swales in front of their homes. Those who did signed agreements pledging to maintain the gardens.

These gardens already flourish with hostas, black-eyed Susans and daylilies. They are designed to filter fertilizer ingredients, street-sanding sediment, metals and oil from storm water. Most of the excess should drain beneath the gardens to help fill the pond at Cannon Hill Park.

The gardens should reduce the need to fill the Cannon Hill pond with tap water. They are designed to treat up to 86,000 gallons of water per storm and to cut the amount of polluted rainwater pouring into the city sewer plant or the Spokane River.

The hard lessons the city learned about listening to property owners during the Bernard Street project have paid off on Lincoln.

Those same lessons must apply to a long list of upcoming street repair projects scheduled throughout the city. Along with listening to homeowners, it will be particularly important for city officials to respond thoughtfully to the concerns of business owners. In a strained economy, no one wins when a local business suffers.

But if Lincoln Street’s the model, the way ahead could be as seamless as fresh asphalt.