Downtown Sandpoint aspires to be the “Hub of the Inland Northwest,” a welcoming, authentic place where one can find the best food, entertainment, shopping, art, and recreation, and a genuine sense of community in all seasons. SERA recently helped the City of Sandpoint distill these aspirations into a vision for a post-Byway Downtown Sandpoint through a robust public involvement and collaborative design process. The result was the Downtown Streets Plan and Design Guide: a framework and design guide for streets and public spaces in Sandpoint’s downtown core.
The improvements outlined in the Downtown Streets Plan and Design Guide include distinctive designs tailored specifically to the culture and climate of Sandpoint. The designs maximize solar exposure and respond to the new local circulation system by creating new sidewalks and trail connections, better lighting, healthier trees, more parking (for both vehicles and bicycles), pedestrian safety enhancements, places to sit and gather, banners and hanging baskets, and sustainable stormwater facilities that will capture and detain run-off before it reaches the community’s most cherished natural amenity, Lake Pend Oreille.
The Downtown Streets Plan and Design Guide was developed to accommodate change and allow for creative solutions to problems that are unique to Sandpoint, while also providing guidance for high-quality, safe, accessible, and vibrant public spaces. With public support and adoption of the Downtown Streets Plan and Design Guide, the City is now poised to implement Sandpoint’s vision of a downtown that is also the heart of their community.
