By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

From taking a bike ride or walk to creating a cohort of small developers, there are a number of opportunities for residents and local organizations to help spur growth along Division Avenue.

These were some recommendations, along with some specific items for The Rapid and the cities of Wyoming, Kentwood, and Grand Rapids, that were released in the Division United town hall meetings on April 22.

“A lot of the recommendations that we are going to be talking about might seem substantial and quite frankly they are,” said Steven Duong, who is with Los Angeles-based consulting firm AECOM, which oversaw the Division United plan. “In many cases, they have to be lead by the entity of the cities such as City of Wyoming or the City of Kentwood, and some have to be lead by private business partners, land owners or business owners in the corridor, but we also want to make sure that we acknowledge that there are things that community groups or citizens can do to make some of the strategies a reality.”

The recommendations are broken down into five categories, referred as “toolkits”: Connectivity and Mobility, Economic Development, Incremental Development, Equity, and Placemaking. Many of the recommendations are for the cities to consider when looking at zoning or infrastructure. 

For example, Connectivity and Mobility addresses how to make the area friendly for people and cars by painting the bus lane and dedicating the lane for the entire day to help increase public transit speeds to creating better crossings and making the bus stations hub stations with other transit options such as bikes and electric scooters.

While those are most of those recommendations have to be done at the city level through zoning, residents can take a walk or bike through the corridor to see the disconnect between the current transit and offer ideas on where to place crosswalks and other needs to increase mobility, said AECOM Transportation Planner Jeromie Winsor.

Residents can also start to form a cohort of small developers who can network, making connections with bank officials and others in development to start discussions on redeveloping small properties such as suggested in the Incremental Development toolkit.

A Community Connector and local business owner Synia Jordan said another project is creating art murals at the stations which would involve community members and local artists, which falls under the Placemaking toolkit.

The entire Division United proposal is available online with Duong recommending that people start with the executive summary, which is an introduction to the overall plan, and then proceed into the five toolkits.

By following that direction, the different concepts become a roadmap to how the Division Avenue corridor can become a more transit supportive environment, which Duong noted is the reason why the study was initiated.

A transit supportive environment is the utilization of effective and predictable transit that encourages surrounding development, which, in turn, supports transit. It was the goal of The Rapid that by launching the Silver Line in 2014 it would spur economic development along the Division corridor, according to The Rapid Planning Manager Nick Monoyios.

While The Rapid has seen a 40 percent growth in ridership from Division Avenue during the past six years, the economic growth has not come, Monoyios said.

So after six years of operations, The Rapid officials decided it needed to be more intentional on how to instigate the benefits for the corridor, he said, adding that a decision was made to seek a Federal Transportation Administration grant designed to help corridors like Division Avenue. The three cities, Wyoming, Kentwood and Grand Rapids, all of which have portions of Division within their boundaries, each dedicated $25,000 to the study. The student focused on Division from Wealthy Street to 60th Street.
 

After more than a year of gathering public input, meeting with business leaders and residents, and hosting special events to demonstrate the possibilities, The Rapid released the Division United recommendations during two town hall meetings on April 22.

To view the entire Division United project and other items, such as the recorded April 22 town hall meetings, visit divisionunited.org.