City of Covington - Pace Street Corridor Study
Memorable cities are often defined by their great streets. The boulevards of Paris, New York avenues, and the monument-lined streets of Washington, D.C. are aesthetically pleasing on the surface, but they meet the greater needs of their communities in less-than-obvious ways.
Great streets provide a wide range of connectivity, allowing for pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicular circulation. Buildings, not parking lots, border the sidewalks and add visual interest while defining the space. Great streets also provide access to public spaces, which can include different districts of town as well as greenspaces and trails. Streets enhance the health and vitality of the city when it provides users with these choices.
Newton County’s leaders recognize the importance of connectivity and the role that streets play in serving the public need. The Pace Street Corridor plan is the cornerstone project for a greater initiative to make Covington a more walkable city. The plan aims to connect the historic downtown square to the commercial district of Highway 278 by providing pedestrian and bicycle access and crossings. In addition, the plan will integrate greenspaces, both existing and future, within the Dried Indian Creek floodplain and adjacent to the railroads. Perhaps more importantly, the new plan would reconnect ethnically diverse areas of town which have long been separated.
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Current conditions along Pace Street fail to provide pedestrian or bicycle facilities. Broken, uneven, and in some cases, the lack of sidewalks endanger and discourage pedestrians from trekking to the downtown square from the Highway 278 shopping area. Disabled citizens would encounter even more problems, as some areas of the sidewalk are too narrow to allow wheelchairs to pass through because utility poles and signage constrict the space. Furthermore, there would be little shade from the summer sun, and wide curb cuts endanger both pedestrians and drivers. The presence of sprawl at the northern end of Pace Street detracts from the environment, as vast parking lots give the street the appearance of a visual wasteland and contrasts with the elegant southern end that connects to the downtown
district.
The Pace Street Corridor project would correct these faults and provide a gateway into the downtown area worthy of Covington’s charming character while being a catalyst for increased public support for further projects that would improve the quality of life for the citizens of Newton County. Click here to veiw the entire LCI Document (PDF 25MB).