What will it take to make a “walkable” Wheaton?

What will it take to make a “walkable” Wheaton?  Last month during an interesting walking tour of downtown Wheaton, many county leaders, local officials, community leaders, business owners and Wheaton homeowners shared ideas about what it will take to make Wheaton “walkable.”  I was encouraged by the interest in the goal and the fact that it appears doable.   Here are a few of issues we need to think about:

Creating destinations:  As we proceed with redevelopment, it will be important to create more public space and to better utilize our existing public space. During the walking tour, we stopped by Veteran’s Park by the County Parking garage off Amherst Ave.  The walk participants all agreed that other then Memorial Day and Labor Day, the park is barely used.  Veteran’s Park was a good stop to talk about underutilized public space.  There is no foot traffic at the park; the lighting is poor; and the limited seating area is hidden away by vegetation.  All these factors create a public area that is not perceived as safe. Many interesting ideas were suggested to increase foot traffic, including having regular “open mike” events, including a Bike Share station, adding seating/tables, and encouraging the owners of the new Safeway development to organize social events. “Dark Sky” exterior lighting can dramatically improve lighting in public areas.  If you are interested in learning more about dark skies lighting, that was the subject of an earlier blog post, Dark Sky Friendly Lighting and Wheaton.

Planning for new public space is important as we redevelop Wheaton. Dan Reed, an urban planner and popular local blogger, noted that town squares are important public spaces.  If we design them right, they can become a welcoming places where we want to hang out. Dan recommended that we push hard for a well designed town square. A people friendly town square surrounded by well designed buildings with high quality materials can set the tone for the rest of Wheaton. 

In addition to public space, we need to make Wheaton a destination for people to live, work and visit.  We need to inspire people with urban architectural design, window displays, streetscaping and landscaping.  We need to consider, for example, the impact our landscaping has during all the seasons.  Wheaton’s landscaping tends to look barren during the winter.  As we walked down Grandview Ave., we noticed a line of many “One Hour Parking” signs.  What message does that send?  If you linger in downtown Wheaton we will give you a parking ticket?   Also, I could not help thinking about the impact we could have if we really visibly greened Wheaton with green walls, more shade trees and gardens, and less surface parking.  One of the stops along our walk was at the Limerick Pub.  Tom Stanton, owner of the pub, explained how he made the Limerick Pub a Wheaton destination.  The pub’s outdoor seating and planting help create an atmosphere where people want to visit. The Thistle and Harp Celtic Festival, hosted in 2011 by both the Limerick and Royal Mile Pubs, also drew many people to Wheaton.

Wayfinding signage to help visitors get to our Wheaton destinations is important.  Visitors who bicycle or walk to downtown Wheaton from the Sligo Creek trails find a series of confusing signs with spelling errors and destination arrows pointing in the wrong direction.  Providing informative wayfinding sign is a simple way to help make Wheaton walkable.

Our leaders and decision makers need to be visionary and forward-thinking. Changing codes and regulations, working with the Maryland Department of Transportation, and coordinating with local businesses and organizations will all be important.  Several of our county and state leaders including County Executive Leggett and Councilmember Navarro, took part in the walk, but anyone can help make this vision a reality. One simple thing people can do is let our leaders hear from you that a walkable and visibly green Wheaton is important. 

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