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At last week’s meeting, the Des Moines City Council received the Roosevelt Cultural District Vision Committee’s report and recommendations for traffic and streetscape improvements around 42nd Street just north of Interstate 235. But the report also contained a petition from local merchants who opposed the project.

The report looks at the area of 42nd Street between the freeway and Crocker Street and adjoining side roads. Proposals include a welcome and identification sign for the district; reconfiguration of 42nd between Crocker and Center streets to a three-lane street with one lane northbound, one lane southbound and a center turn lane; a short fourth lane in front of the Des Moines Playhouse to accommodate right-hand turns onto Rollins Avenue and into the Shops at Roosevelt; and more tree and flower plantings.

The proposal has been in the works since the Roosevelt Cultural District Board created the committee in September 2006. It received most of the feedback on its proposals in fall 2007, which were filed with the report, including letters of support from the Drake Neighborhood Association and Ingersoll Park Neighborhood Association.

However, it also contained a petition received in September 2007 from area merchants who were against many of the ideas, including creating more construction work in front of their stores after dealing with I-235 bridge construction in 2004; adding traffic lights and medians, which they felt would create more traffic problems; and changing the traffic patterns, which they said could lower the value of some properties.