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City gets feedback on proposal to turn one-way streets into two-way

Monday night, an open house was held to discuss the reimagine Grand Rapids project.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The heart of downtown Grand Rapids includes City Hall and Calder Plaza.

"This area has long been the core of downtown," said Kristin Bennett who works in the city's traffic division.

Now that core, which includes Ottawa, Ionia and Fulton, is being reimagined because of an upcoming street resurfacing project.

"Do they want more trees? Do they want more transit access? Bike parking?" said Bennett.

Safety improvements like dedicated bike lanes were also discussed at a community feedback session Monday night.

"Creating a very distinctive corridor for bicycle traffic using Division, which goes under Michigan and comes down to most likely Pearl," said Bennett.

RELATED: Two one-way streets could become two-way in downtown Grand Rapids

But the idea that is eliciting the most feedback is changing one-way streets like Ottawa and Ionia into permanent two-way traffic.

Kim Hall has worked at Perrigo Printing on Ottawa Avenue NW for years.

"I think that having a two-way is just going to add a lot of chaos, so I think it's a bad idea," said Hall. "A lot of customers know this only as a one-way street and I think it would confuse them greatly. Parking would be another issue if you have two-way traffic."

City leaders are emphasizing that no final decisions have been made. 

"We can make it work either way. It's just a function of is this, what the community is interested in and what would be the impacts of it—pro and con," said Bennett.

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