Wendell presents downtown streetscape master plan calling for wider sidewalks, flexible festival streets and nearly 200 new parking spaces

Town of Wendell staff and design consultants presented a downtown streetscape master plan to the Board of Commissioners that envisions new sidewalks, tree planters, street lighting, public art and “flexible” festival streets intended to accommodate outdoor dining and events while improving ADA accessibility.

The plan covers the downtown core roughly between Second and Fourth streets and Cypress and Pine avenues and grew from a year of community engagement that included in‑person events, online surveys and board presentations. Daniel Watley, landscape architect with Withers Ravenel, told the board the project aims to make the space “where people belong” by redesigning the area between buildings and the roadway to support businesses and pedestrian activity.

The plan proposes a net increase of almost 200 parking spaces across the study area, produced by a mix of new striping, conversion of some angled stalls to perpendicular stalls, and the formalization of off‑street surface lots the town already uses. Town staff and consultants told commissioners the increase breaks down roughly into 93 additional on‑street spaces and about 100 from…