Fairfield officials look to reduce curb cuts in the Riegart Square strip center area
Under a plan to revitalize the Riegart Square strip center in downtown Fairfield, curb cuts would be reduced from 14 to four on the east side of Pleasant Avenue.
When completed the move would make the stretch safer for vehicles and pedestrians, improve aesthetics, enhance the image of the city’s town center, and attract additional businesses, according to Nathaniel Kaelin, the city’s economic development manager.
“Aesthetically, there’s some visual blight, not necessarily the image we want for Pleasant Avenue,” Kaelin said.
“There’s not a lot of green there. It’s not a very pleasant place to walk, there’s not a lot of turning radius; there are few trees.”
The area in question is located along Pleasant Avenue – U.S. 127 – between Nilles Road and the Pleasant Run Creek. It developed in the 1960s and 1970s as single-family homes were sold and the lots were developed as individual businesses.
As early as 1982, there were traffic problems due to the numerous curb cuts in the 1,100-foot stretch between Nilles Road and Patterson Boulevard.
A study showed that between 2017 and 2019 there were 21 crashes, including four with injuries. Of those, 13 were driveway related. About 18,000 vehicles travel through the area daily.
There are about 30 businesses in the center today, Kaelin said. Only a dozen have pole signs, the others only have signs on their units.
In the works since the 1980s, the city could never get the individual property owners – which at one time numbered 17 individuals or groups – to agree on a plan. But that has changed with only eight property owners today, Kaelin said.
All of the property owners as well as business owners have given their verbal agreement to the plan.
Besides reducing the curb cuts to four drives, the $1.45 million plan includes putting in a three-foot strip of grass along Pleasant Avenue, a five-foot sidewalk, and designating a seven-foot area for landscaping and brick, monument signs similar to those in the Village Green area.
The city is also in negotiations to purchase the 5110 Pleasant Ave. building for $190,000.
“The time is right, the time is right to move forward and get some revitalization (there),’’ said Councilman Tim Meyers.
Money to purchase the building would come from a special taxing district and another $1.25 million would come from the dollars the city received from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The next steps are getting all the property owners to sign letters of intent and development agreements, establishing easements, and designing/engineering the project.
Construction is expected to start next year.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Fairfield look to reduce curb cuts in the Riegart Square area
