Laramie Planning Commission Looks at Third Street Updates

Laramie may have an official strategy for major updates to Third Street if an improvement plan is approved by the Laramie City Council.

The Laramie Planning Commission voted to approve adoption the Third Street improvement plan as an official plan of the city in their last meeting Monday, Mar. 13.

The resolution states the enhancements would come as part of major maintenance projects being planned by the Wyoming Department of Transportation for Third Street. Those improvements, according to the resolution, will include resurfacing, repairs to storm sewer and replacement of signs and traffic signals.

Associate City Planner Eric Connor said the timing of the resolution revolves around the WYDOT construction plans.

“Third Street is a WYDOT road,” Connor said. “WYDOT has planned to upgrade the street and we should have a brand new Third Street by 2020.”

Connor said any other upgrades the city would want to make to Third Street would be easier to install when the street was already under construction.

Executive Director of the Laramie Main Street Alliance Trey Sherwood said a lot of work has already gone into the creation of the resolution. She said the Laramie Planning Commission jointly applied for a technical assistance grant with WYDOT, the City of Laramie, the University of Wyoming and the Laramie Main Street Alliance. The grant was applied for through New Mobility West and was approved in April 2016. New Mobility West is a regional nonprofit organization that aids communities with transportation challenges.

"New Mobility West then supplied technical assistance in the form of teams of landscaping architects, traffic planning experts and other experts in the field that August," Sherwood said. "They helped gather the information that went into that resolution."

The experts hosted a walking tour, design meetings and public workshops in order to create a vision for the improvements to Third Street, according to the resolution.

Sherwood said WYDOT has set a July 1st deadline for a written agreement between all the stakeholders in the project so WYDOT can complete the final design for the 2020 project.

Sherwood said City Council will discuss the resolution on April 4th during their Tuesday night meeting.