SUPPORTING Wilson Downtown Improvement Project

Enhanced safety, crosswalks, pathways, trees & more

January 5, 2025

To: Teton County Board of County Commissioners, Teton County Wyoming

Sent via email: commissioners@tetoncountywy.gov

From: Wilson Advocacy Steering Committee

Subject: Support Comment – Downtown Wilson Active Transportation Project

Dear Teton County Commissioners,

The Wilson Advocacy Steering Committee has reviewed the Downtown Wilson Project Staff Report, on the Board’s agenda for final approval at the January 7 meeting, and we provide the following comments.

Our volunteer community group would like to acknowledge and thank Teton County for the substantial time and professional work invested in the Wilson plans over the past seven years, and we are grateful Teton County included this project in the Teton Mobility BUILD grant.

We strongly support the primary recommended motion, to approve the Downtown Wilson Active Transportation improvements as designed. Below we provide the following specific comments on the 14 design options presented. Thank you for considering these.

The numbers below refer to the 14 design options presented in the Jan 7th Staff Report:

1.     Pathway alignment Downtown Core. Keep north side pathway.

2.     Pathway Width, keep recommended 10’ width for two-way shared use walk/bike path.

We strongly request the Board support both of these key design features. Keeping a walk/bike pathway on both north and south sides of downtown Wilson, built to the standard width of 10’, is a critical element of the project. It is needed to provide safe connectivity to, from, and between commercial destinations along both sides of the highway. As described in detail in the Staff Report, the basic design was approved by Teton County in the Wilson Multimodal Transportation Plan in 2022. The removal would run contrary to the adopted policies in the Teton County Comprehensive Plan and Integrated Transportation Plan polices, and the Safe Streets for All plans underway.

It would also trigger revising the BUILD “Paper Grant Agreement”, a move with potentially with serious penalties. That needs to be avoided.

3.     Pathway Surfacing Texture and Color.

We definitely support the color change to help denote a change of character and help reduce bike speeds, either the recommended colored asphalt or the more expensive concrete. One thing that was not mentioned is that concrete will have roughly twice the life span as asphalt, so long term costs may not be that different.

Regarding texture, care needs to be taken so that it does not reduce accessibility. The pathway needs to be fully ADA compliant, and generally people with disabilities are best served with a smooth surface. Texture could make it less accessible, that is not good.

It’s important to consider that by design and function, people on any kind of bike will naturally be moving slowly along the Downtown Wilson pathways. Wilson is the destination for most people, so they will be slowing down to go to the stores, Post Office, and restaurants. People will also need to slow and potentially stop to safely cross the side access intersections that are along both the north and south sides of WY22. Well-designed shared use pathways, with cues like color change and good signage also lowers speeds. These factors combined will naturally manage bike speeds in downtown Wilson to below 10mph, and the pathways can be safely shared with pedestrians.

4.     Bus Turnouts. Yes, please support these.

We support including the bus stops. It is part of the multimodal BUILD grant, and we are hopeful that over time transit service will be able to expand.

5.     North Side Pathway Wilson Medical Section.

We recommend keeping this pathway section. It was approved in the Wilson Multimodal Concept Plan, it’s fully designed and ready to go, never be easier or cheaper, and we recommend keeping it in the construction plans. It extends an existing pathway at Wilson Medical that Teton County required back in 2006, with this very extension in mind. It will serve those people that currently walk along the busy WY22 shoulder. It’s not an insignificant number. Our observations show people of all ages using it, including kids walking home from school and moms walking to school. They deserve to be safe and off the shoulder of the highway. Use will increase over the lifespan of the pathway.

In terms of schedule, the contractor could be directed to first complete Downtown Wilson section, and the Wilson Medical section could be towards the end or in 2026.

Great towns like Wilson deserve safe walk/bike ways along both sides of their main streets. A safe temporary crossing with an RRFB could be installed at the Raptor Center access road to get people to Wilson. When WYDOT eventually replaces Fish Creek bridge and addresses the north side crossing for people walking and biking, the temporary crossing at Raptor access could be removed.

The east entry to the developed Town of Wilson starts at Wilson Medical, and a sidewalk pathway would help convey that and encourage slower traffic speeds. That section has a grass buffer strip and potentially could add street trees.

The Wilson Medical section of pathway will never be easier or less expensive to build than now. It was approved as part of BUILD; the NEPA is all approved, and it’s fully designed. The added cost is only $300k.

6.     Landscaping.

We recommend approving adding the conduit to the green space, and if feasible to include street trees as well. Wilson Advocacy is willing to assist Teton County with a community fund raising effort to help support this element if it can be included.

7.     Retaining Wall and Safety Railing

8.     Retaining Wall Grading Options

Wilson Advocacy strongly prefers the new “No Wall” design option that can eliminate nearly all of the retaining walls, by sloping the grass buffer space and pathway outward toward the edge of the ROW. This is highly preferred to the retaining wall and railing option. It saves money, reduces impacts of the wall and railing, and would seem beneficial to the adjacent property owners. Please support this change for a win-win on this issue.

9.     Edmiston Springs Retaining Wall – Do not replace Highway Culvert

10.  Edmiston Spring Culvert

Wilson Advocacy recommends that Teton County stay basically with the current plan, to leave the existing highway culvert in place and not seek to install a slightly wider culvert to facilitate fish passage.

 However, if feasible, we recommend changing the design to the same out-sloped buffer strip and pathway, to lower the retaining wall, like the recommended #8 option, to reduce the height needed. This should be feasible on the north where Teton County owns the adjacent wetland property. In this case, a short retaining wall and railing will still be needed to cross the spring. But we see negligible harm to wildlife with such a short railing section, and one could argue that moose would be more visible climbing up to road height back a few feet from the highway rather that more immediately up the steep bank there today. Currently, moose go around the steep slope above the culvert anyway! If feasible this should also be done on the south side, dependent on the adjacent property owner.

Our concern with replacing the highway culvert is due to several factors. One is the priority for minimizing impacts to the wetland. On the north side of WY22, the Wilson Wetland property is protected as a nature park with a focus on wetland education, including a conservation easement that is largely based on the wetland. It would seem a shame to needlessly impact that.

Second, the extreme cost of up to $1.5 million is out of scale with the small potential improvement. While Edmiston Springs is a wonderful resource, it has only a couple of CFS water flow, and it ends just a quarter mile upstream.

Third, excavating WY-22 to install it would cause severe traffic backups, due to the need to restrict traffic to one-way to cut the highway and install a new culvert.

Last, it would severely delay the project with the extensive design and permitting with WYDOT that has not even been started. That could easily stretch this out another year or more, which is detrimental to the BUILD grant.

In other words, if Teton County did an analysis of where to best spend $1.5 million to enhance wildlife movements, this project would be at the bottom of the list. Please stay the course and use the retaining wall and railing in this location.

11.  West Street Crosswalk and RRFB

Wilson Advocacy firmly believes this crosswalk is a critical element of the design, and we recommend Teton County include this in the approval, and continue to work with WYDOT to assure the RRFB can also be added. This pedestrian and bike crossing is needed to address the well-established need for people to safely cross WY22 to and from West Street to Basecamp and the south side pathway.

In addition to the Alta Planning memo in support of the RRFB, we note that in the Dec/2023 latest edition of the MUTCD, the traffic engineer’s bible, RRFBs are now allowed outright, and no longer require FHWA experimental approval. The MUTCD states: “A pedestrian-activated and/or bicyclist-activated rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB) may be used to provide supplemental emphasis to pedestrian, school, and trail warning signs at marked crosswalks across uncontrolled approaches.” [MUTCD p. 736 Section 4L.01]

12.  Gateway Monument/Signage

13.  Wayfinding / Informational Signage

14.  Amenities

We recommend adding the Wayfinding and informational signage, #13 Option B, in order to add typical Teton County Pathway informational signage as part of the Downtown Wilson project.

We also recommend the plan identify locations for possible amenities, #14 option B.

While we firmly support the Gateway Monument and Wilson amenities, we believe these should be a separate effort from the Downtown Wilson Project. Wilson Advocacy is willing to assist Teton County with a community effort to help or potentially lead, which will require community engagement, planning and fundraising.

As part of your approval, please request that Staff move forward expeditiously to get this out to bid as soon as possible. Ideally, it will still be feasible to advertise late winter and construct the main Downtown segment, from Stagecoach to Fish Creek, substantially in 2025, with minimum work to carry over into 2026.

Thank you for the substantial time and dedication Teton County has invested to bring the Wilson project to final approval. With the minor recommended changes noted in this comment, we ask for your full support to approve the Wilson Active Transportation project.

Sincerely,

Wilson Advocacy Steering Committee

Bill Field, Scott Horn, Ginny Hutchinson, Molly Murry, Camille Obering, Susan Temple, Marylee White, Tim Young