STANWOOD TWIN CITY MILE
REVITALIZING DOWNTOWN
The City of Stanwood is a special place; it is the perfect mix of rural countryside with small-town living. A vibrant and economically robust downtown will celebrate the uniqueness of Stanwood. To achieve the vision for Stanwood, the Twin City Mile Project will invest in the downtown business district through five unifying concepts:
UNIFYING THEMES
CREATE PEDESTRIAN-FRIENDLY STREETS
ACTIVELY ENGAGE STOREFRONTS WITH WALKABLE SIDEWALKS
ENCOURAGE THE USE OF STREETS FOR COMMUNITY EVENTS AND FESTIVALS
CREATE USABLE URBAN PARK SPACES
PROMOTE BUYING LOCAL
THE CORRIDOR
The City has hired local Landscape Architect Scott Lankford, and engaged our on-call traffic and safety engineering experts at Transpo Group to help reimage the City’s downtown corridor, the Twin City Mile. The corridor runs between City Hall and the Train Station, connecting Stanwood’s two historical downtown developed cores. As part of the Project, gateway signage, civic plazas, and new urban parks will be built along the Mile. The transportation environment will be reimagined with wider sidewalks, multimodal streets, public art, street trees and street furniture.
PROJECT TYPES
Based on the feedback from the Steering Committee obtained in March 2022, two categories of projects were identified. The categories are short term (projects implementable within 6-12 months) and long term (projects requiring a 2-year or more development time) projects.
SHORT-TERM
Project types that can be implemented quickly, with minimal design.
BIKE RACKS AND PEDESTRIAN REST AREAS
WAYFINDING SIGNAGE, KIOSKS AND HISTORICAL PLACARDS
FLOWER BASKETS AND PLANTERS
BIKE LANES
PUBLIC ART
TRAFFIC CALMING AND/OR SPEED LIMIT EVALUATION ON THE TWIN CITY MILE
INCENTIVES FOR BUSINESSES TO BEAUTIFY BUILDINGS AND ADD SIDEWALK CAFES
LONG-TERM
Project types that involve additional engineering design and higher costs to construct.
IMPROVE INTERSECTION AND MIDBLOCK PEDESTRIAN CROSSING CONDITIONS
RESTORE BRICK ROADS AND MAINTAIN BRICK AESTHETIC WHERE FEASIBLE
POCKET PARKS AND EXERCISE AREAS
SIDEWALKS AND SHARED-USE PATHS
PLANTED MEDIANS, STREET TREES, AND STREETSCAPING
INSPIRATIONAL SKETCHES
The Twin City Mile project team has prepared artists’ renderings of what the short-term and long-term project types could look like in Downtown Stanwood, and along 271st Street NW. The sketches include many of the elements shown above and are intended to help the project team and the public to envision what the Twin City Mile could be as a point of civic pride for the City of Stanwood. Please consider the sketches in your assessment of your favored improvement types and let us know what you think in the survey.
Hover or click to learn more
CONFLICTING PRIORITIES
Downtown corridor revitalization is an exciting process that can create long-lasting areas of civic pride. The selection of projects involves a balancing of often conflicting priorities in the corridor. A “Complete Streets” corridor is unable to provide full access to businesses, plentiful on-street parking, the most comfortable active mode facilities, fit within City funding resources, and still maintain a small footprint that doesn’t affect existing businesses and properties.
The City is asking the public to identify ranked priorities so that when conflicts occur, the Twin City Mile project can select the project type that meets the expectations of the residents of Stanwood.
PEDESTRIAN CONNECTIVITY, SAFETY, AND COMFORT
SPEED AND EFFICIENCY OF VEHICLE PASSTHROUGH TRAFFIC
LEFT TURN ACCESS TO AND FROM ALL DRIVEWAYS, STREETS, ETC.
PLENTIFUL ON-STREET PARKING
AESTHETICS, INCLUDING STREET TREES, PLANTINGS, STREET FURNITURE, AND PUBLIC ART
TIMELINE
-
The project kicked off in January, 2022
-
Steering Committee meetings were held in February and March, 2022
-
The public engagement phase of the project will be conducted via this website in May, 2022
-
The Steering Committee will meet again in June, 2022
-
Conceptual plans for the Twin City Mile will be completed by the end of July, 2022
-
The Stanwood City Council will take action on the plan in August of 2022