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Complete Streets board urges $300,000 Crescent Avenue connector and 25 mph Intertax District limit
Summary
Complete Streets Advisory Board asked Saratoga Springs officials to pursue a $300,000 Tonko grant for a Crescent Avenue multiuse path, commit matching funds, and approve a low-cost engineering study to adopt a 25 mph Intertax District speed limit to improve safety and multimodal access.
The Complete Streets Advisory Board told the City Council Tuesday that a recently awarded $300,000 grant from Congressman Paul Tonko’s office offers a timely chance to fund a Crescent Avenue multiuse bike-and-walk connector, but the board warned the full project will likely require more than the grant and a municipal match.
Ted Orison, vice chair of the Complete Streets Advisory Board, said the Crescent Avenue connector would link downtown trails to regional corridors and support workforce housing near the casino by providing safe access to transit and Broadway. "Congressman Tonko's grant gives us a leg up on that," Orison said. He and other board members urged the council to begin engineering and commitment discussions now so construction could start in 2025.
Council members pressed staff on costs and jurisdictional issues after Orison noted that Crescent Avenue is a county-owned road in places and that the Tonko award alone is unlikely to cover the full scope. A DPW representative and other staff agreed it will be necessary to coordinate with the county and conduct an engineering study to determine the alignment and total budget.
The board also renewed its push for a 25 mph Intertax District speed limit, recommending a single engineering study rather than street-by-street analyses. "Simply put, this saves lives," Orison said, calling recent adoptions in comparable municipalities evidence that the approach is feasible. Board members estimated an engineering analysis could be "less than $25,000," though council members asked staff to verify whether that figure would require a citywide study or could be scoped to the downtown district.
The presentation included additional network recommendations to better connect the Zim Smith Trail, Railroad Run, and local on-street lanes, and urged the council to adopt a five-year Complete Streets implementation strategy and pursue matching funds from federal, state and county grant programs.
