forwardJamestown1Jamestown (CSi) Jamestown residents and city officials Wednesday reviewed potential changes with the city’s traffic flows to potentially reduce the amount of traffic through downtown Jamestown.

An open house was held at Jamestown City Hall, with the Jamestown Land Use and Transportation Plan.

The long-range plan designed to assist local officials and developers in developing roads and infrastructure for growth is about half finished.

The total cost of the project is $340,000 with the city of Jamestown paying $120,000, and the rest covered by state and federal transportation funds.

RDG Planning and Design, Planner, Marty Shukert and Bob Shannon,  an engineer with KLJ, noted maps detailing current and proposed roads and land use plans in two separate open houses Wednesday.

Shukert says the biggest transportation problem in Jamestown is not congestion but connectivity. Increasing connectivity between northern and southern Jamestown has been a goal of the plan, although not every plan has worked out.

Local connections ran into obstacles such as burial grounds in southwest Jamestown.

Other more viable plans include reducing the amount of traffic on First Avenue, taking the highway designation off First Avenue.

Officials add that a railroad overpass on 12th Avenue Southeast would also provide another route for travelers across Jamestown.

Jim Boyd, chairman of the Jamestown Regional Airport Authority,  added that an overpass would help improve access to the airport by providing a direct route from U.S. Highway 281 and Interstate 94.

Slowing traffic through downtown may be accomplished by allowing diagonal parking, to increase the number of parking spaces available downtown.

Presentation of the preliminary LUTP is planned for November with final approval in early 2015.