Champaign City Council will discuss zoning changes on Green Street and removing parking on Wright Street at the Tuesday night study session.
The proposal would accommodate businesses instead of the parking spaces and large commercial buildings currently occupying the space between Third Street and Wright Street.
“We had a plan in ’06 called the University District Streetscape Action Plan to update Green Street,” said Zeba Aziz, planner II for the city of Champaign. “This section of Green Street is so close to the University and students, and it has a bigger opportunity and potential.”
Depending on the direction from the city council, planners will move forward to draft a proposal for the project.
“The zoning change would make development on the West side to match the East side, the 500 and 600 blocks of Green,” Aziz said. “The future development helps to move towards a more pedestrian friendly, urban, dense and student friendly street that it has the potential to be.”
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The council will also hear a proposal to remove parking on White Street between Fourth and First streets. The changes in the MTD routes caused an increase in bus frequency along White Street.
“There used to be one bus every 15 minutes or so, but now there is a bus every five minutes,” said Rob Kowalski, assistant planning director for the city of Champaign. “The MTD is asking the city to remove on-street permit parking on White Street.”
The city has already removed on-street parking on White between Wright and Fourth streets, Kowalski said.
“With parking on that one side of the street, it is impossible for two buses to pass,” Kowalski said. “This was not an issue when the bus frequency wasn’t as high as it is now.”
Kowalski said buses have to use Fourth Street until construction on the Boneyard is completed, which has allowed some parking to remain on White between Fourth and Second streets without affecting the bus routes.
“There is a financial implication to removing parking,” Kowalski said. “We get revenue from the permits people buy to park there, so we would not be getting that revenue.”
