DPatel304 wrote:Not very pedestrian friendly, but, then again, this area is pretty much right up against I-345 anyway, and wasn't pedestrian friendly to begin with. Maybe the silver lining is, is that it might encourage some dense development between Cesar Chavez and I-345. I think this sliver of land won't be pedestrian friendly, but, who knows, maybe there is demand for an office building or apartment building with quick and easy access to get in and out of Downtown. I'm pretty sure that's half the reason why the Harwood district has been so successful.
Eh, seven lanes is good for regional transportation, but it's a big negative for residential development and even commercial (see for examples AT&T asking for a lane reduction for 4 to 3 on Commerce). Most of the streets with most of the deveopment in VP/Uptown are on 3 or 4 lane roads. McKinnon is the exception, and I'd say the development along there has been in spite of its 5 lanes, not because of it (plus the rumblings that Harwood wants a road diet). 7 lanes is even less appealing to development, though I suppose the landscaping mitigates some of the negative impact.
It could still be a net positive for the neighborhood if it solved some significant access issues of getting into and out of the neighborhood, but I suspect that 4 lanes was enough capacity and just some configuration changes could have addressed whatever problems there were.