Marion committee could recommend Seventh Avenue plan tonight

An advisory committee meeting tonight could recommend redeveloping Seventh Avenue as a pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare with fewer vehicles, mixed-use development and more green space.

If the committee, which meets at 7 p.m. at Campbell Steele Gallery, 1064 7th Ave., recommends proceeding with the new vision for downtown Marion, the plan would be taken up by the Planning and Zoning Commission, according to planning director Tom Treharne. He'd like to present a recommendation to the City Council before the end of the year.

It likely would be without the support of advisory committee members Gary Bolden and Mike Orness, who say their Seventh Avenue businesses would be displaced by one option and disadvantaged by others.

“We'd like to save Seventh Avenue for through traffic,” said Bolden of Marion Brush Manufacturing and Janitorial Supply, which has been located in the 1600 block of Seventh since 1954. “The traffic is why we located here. We're not against redevelopment to better our community, but some plans we favor over others.”

He and Mike Orness, owner of Denny's Automotive & Muffler since 1981, are among those businesses that would be displaced by one of the options, Plan D, which calls for a roundabout at about 16th Street. Food service businesses and retailers along Marion's main thoroughfare would be devastated if traffic is shifted off Seventh Avenue, they said.

Orness believes he could survive relocation, but he wants to know the cost and impact of redevelopment, which he considers highly speculative. redeveloping the four-lane street and moving traffic to a two-lane Sixth Avenue, which is not currently a through street, with left turn lanes.

“My biggest concern is the unknown,” Orness said. He calls the city's vision for a Seventh Avenue corridor with fewer vehicles and more appeal for walking, dining and shopping “pretty, but I think they're looking at a future without looking at what they already have.”

Treharne says Bolden and Orness are in a minority. He suggests opponents are getting the cart before the horse with questions about the cost of redevelopment.

“Any plan is going to cost money,” he said. Once the city has a plan it can explore funding. Up to $3 million in local-option sales tax proceeds has been dedicated to central corridor redevelopment, and the city hopes to leverage more funding from the state and Washington.

Estimates are it would cost about $10 million to rework Sixth and Seventh avenues and property acquisition would be crucial, including acquiring land from Kings Feed/Prince Agra to reconnect the roads near 31st Street.

Attracting developers along the redesigned streets would be vital, Treharne said. Huge private investment would be needed to fund residential, commercial and mixed-use projects along the railroad right of way.