JENKS, Okla. — The City of Jenks is considering major changes to its downtown Main Street, including removing diagonal parking and adding landscaping to create a more pedestrian-friendly environment.
In March, the city launched a pilot program called “Reimagine Main Street” following resident feedback. The experiment involved removing a parking block and adding temporary landscaping.
City of Jenks
“Without prioritizing Main Street, you’re going to lose the heart of your city,” Jenks Director of Planning Marcae Hilton said.
The city received over 700 survey responses to the project.
WATCH: ‘I loved the change’: Jenks residents, city leaders discuss Main Street project
‘I loved the change’: Jenks residents, city leaders discuss Main Street project
“The people who loved it loved it. The people who aren’t comfortable with that type of change and that type of experiment weren’t really impressed or in favor,” Hilton said.
Britny Pittman, co-owner of Dwell in Jenks, said the people who shop at her store liked the change.
City of Jenks
“Everything that we heard, the feedback that we heard in our store was great. The customers seemed to really enjoy it,” Pittman said. “You’re never going to please anybody 100%. Change is hard, but I think we need to see some change down here for sure.”
The main reason the city wanted to test the Reimagine Main Street project was the diagonal parking. Residents complained that backing out into oncoming traffic is dangerous.
“There’s still that little threshold, right? Where you haven’t committed yet, you have to keep going, keep going. And at some point, you just have to commit and hope nobody’s back there,” Hilton said.
City of Jenks
The most recent Main Street renderings focus on landscaping. Hilton said the city is still considering parking options, including parallel spots or no spots.
“There would be breaks in the trees so you could see the facade, you could see the signage, you could see the buildings. It would feel a lot different than what we presented during the pilot program,” Hilton said.
“I don’t speak for all the business owners because I don’t know what their experience is with that, but for us, I loved the change,” Pittman said.
One complaint about the project came from people who struggle walking, who said they wanted close parking. The city will meet with them and business owners to gather more feedback before submitting final plans.
Hilton said the city will take the final renderings to the planning commission in May.
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