No, they haven't begun the reroute of Highway 20 so that it bypasses downtown Sisters, although her downtown streets are dotted with orange cones these days. In case you've recently traveled through town amid the maze, you've probably wondered what exactly is going on. Well, a couple of things: first, an ongoing sidewalk improvement project is in the works; and the confusing five-way intersection at Cascade, Cedar and Larch is being reconfigured into a simpler four-way set-up.
But th
e discussion about exactly how to handle the ever-increasing traffic that funnels through town on its way to other Central Oregon locales is about to heat up (again). In the next few months, the City of Sisters will attempt to finalize its Transportation System Plan (TSP), which will address that problem.
For a while now, three different potential plans for dealing with Sisters' traffic congestion have been on the table:
Option 1.: Create a Main Street/Hood Avenue couplet through town, at a cost of approximately $47 million;
Option 2.: Create an alternate route from Barclay Drive on the north end of town to Locust Street on the south side, at a cost of approximately $41 million;
Option 3: Do nothing.
The de facto plan favored so far has been Option 3, simply because nobody could agree on anything else (the main concern: Would moving the main flow of traffic away from Cascade Avenue do irrevocable damage to the many businesses there?).
Last week, when Community Development Department Director Eric Porter held his monthly meeting with local Realtors, he discussed the pros and cons of Options 1 and 2. Option 1, he said, would be problematic because it would have to be done all at once (and the Oregon Department of Transportation has no money available until 2013, he pointed out); while Option 2, which is also less expensive, could be done piecemeal.
The TSP is supposed to be completed by the end of the year. However, before it's finalized, area residents will be asked via a public forum to weigh in on their preferences (sometime in the next few weeks). One motivating factor for finalizing the plan, Porter added: Sisters will be eligible for federal grant money once the plan is in place (in fact, he said, the city missed out on $1.5 million last year because the TSP had not been adopted). Let's hope that this time, a workable plan will emerge.
About the Author:
Lisa Broadwater is a Central Oregon-based real estate professional who specializes in listing and selling homes, especially in Sisters, Tumalo, Redmond and Bend. If you'd like to learn more about Central Oregon, please visit http://www.centraloregonhome4you.com/.
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