Main Street Intersection Improvements Could Resemble This

Ellicott City's Main Street could see significant changes to intersections, according to renderings created by consultants tasked with guiding the county on how to spend $3 million in funds budgeted for improving the Historic District.

TND Planning Group released a report detailing Main Street improvements after holding a second public meeting at the end of the September.

The report identified several priorities discussed by residents and business owners on how to improve Main Street.

Among those improvements were five "Tier 1" projects—short term capital projects—that all dealt with intersections and crosswalks. If approved, the projects would focus on the intersections at Main St. and Ellicott Mills Drive, Main Street and Old Columbia Pike and Main Street at Maryland Avenue as well as add crosswalks on upper and lower Main Street.

These short-term projects include raised crosswalks, new landscaping and raised intersections. The most significant change appears to be eliminating the right-hand turn lane at the intersection of Main Street and Old Columbia Pike and replacing it with a larger sidewalk and landscaping.

Check out the renderings above to see what those improvements would look like.

The consultants' report also listed several Tier 2 projects identified by residents that are not so short-term, but could have benefits. Those included the following:

• Address Stormwater management and flooding in Downtown and West

End

• Increased Access to Patapsco River

• Signage: Gateway and wayfinding

• Sidewalk repair and improvement

• More public restrooms

• Make EC bike-friendly community

• Undergrounding of overhead wires

• Parking lot D reconfiguration and partial daylighting of Tiber Creek

• Increased connectivity of downtown to adjacent developed areas, trails,

and natural areas

• Fels Lane Rain Garden

• Redevelopment of Old Carter Center basketball courts into park/public

space

• Increased visibility between Tiber-Hudson Creek and dowtown

• Reconfiguration of Parking Lot E and stairway near County Courthouse

• "Hardscape" Streetscape improvements

TND Planning Group listed long-term improvements like increased marketing for Main Street, expanded business hours, and discouraging or prohibiting non-retail uses on ground floor buildings in a third tier of recommendations.