Rehoboth task force: Keep character, bury utilities

Following weeks of meetings, a Rehoboth Beach task force has issued guidelines to a consultant hired to improve the streetscape of Baltimore and Wilmington avenues. Topping the list was the desire for the consultant to keep the character of each individual block, while also providing as much space as possible for pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

The Wilmington/Baltimore Avenue Streetscape Task Force began meeting in March. The city has hired the Rossi Group, based in Hunt Valley, Md., to provide guidance through the process to the point of construction.

The task force didn't go into project specifics, but they did make a few distinct recommendations that will shape Rossi’s final product – shared bike lanes rather than dedicated bike lanes, minimum travel lane widths of at least 10 feet and turning lanes onto Rehoboth Avenue, and designing the Boardwalk ends of Baltimore and Wilmington avenues to be more inviting.

Mills said these details were not necessarily set in stone. Rossi will take the recommendations and meeting minutes to do what they can, he said.

In a previous meeting, Mills began to look at the possible addition and removal of parking spots within the designated area, which includes the first two blocks of Baltimore and Wilmington avenues, a small section of North and South First Street, and a small section of South Second Street. However, at the most recent meeting, he backed off that track, saying it was too far into the design, and that was what Rossi Group would be looking at.

Let's leave that up to Rossi, he said.

A few of the task force members said they wanted to be more involved in the details of the streetscape improvements – lights, benches and sidewalk finishes.

Jenny Burton, a business owner on Baltimore Avenue, said she would like to see the task force conduct a charrette, where task force members can walk around and make notes on what they do and don’t like. The task force hasn’t gotten into the nitty-gritty, she said.

Mills said that would happen, but the Rossi Group needed to present the city with its proposal before the details could be figured out.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Mills said he did not know how long it would take the Rossi Group to turn the task force recommendations into a visual product.

Prior to the newest set of guidelines, the group presented city commissioners with a list of high-level recommendations – continuing to investigate the most practical way to bury utilities to the fullest extent possible; proceeding with the design without a traffic study; not including one-way streets; and not pursuing low vehicle-access zones, except possibly at the ends of the avenues near the Boardwalk. During an April 16 meeting, Rehoboth Beach commissioners unanimously supported the recommendations.