About the Project
Over the next year, Reimagining Franklin Street will take a fresh look at Franklin Street.
This effort will consider the best features from previous studies, apply today’s standards for multi-modal street design, and address transportation and land use in tandem. The end result will be a final plan for Franklin Street that paves the way for a new, once-in-a-generation investment in this critical element of the City’s fabric.
Project Area
Reimagining Franklin Street will consider the entire length of Franklin Street from I-295/Marginal Way to Commercial Street, including areas to the immediate east and west to ensure continuity to abutting neighborhoods and streets. The project will examine this area in an integrated fashion, from both the transportation and land use perspectives, looking at safety, accessibility, mobility, urban design, and housing and economic development potential.
Process
Reimagining Franklin Street will include four phases of work, spanning approximately 10 months. There will be opportunities for the public to engage throughout the project, particularly around major milestones in the late spring, early summer, and fall.
Mobilize
This project kick-off phase includes work behind the scenes to prepare the project for subsequent public-facing phases. Mobilize tasks include assembling background information, developing a public participation plan, and launching this website.
Aspire
The Aspire phase will focus on reintroducing Reimagining Franklin Street to the community and updating the vision, goals, and purpose and need statement.
Refine
The Refine phase is the heart of the project, where most of the engineering and design work will happen. This phase will include extensive opportunities for the public to learn about and provide input on the transportation and land use plan.
Advance
The Advance phase will focus on developing the final plans with input from the public. During this phase, an implementation plan and funding strategy will also be crafted.
How we got here
In the first half of the 1900s, Franklin Street was a typical north-south two-lane street, much like many others in the City of Portland. The neighborhoods surrounding it were densely populated, many of them with recent immigrants. With the advent of urban renewal in the 1960s, however, Franklin Street and the abutting areas were identified as the preferred route for moving traffic between the new Interstate 295, downtown Portland, and the waterfront. The razing of the neighborhood around Franklin Street began soon after, resulting in the demolition of approximately 100 structures and the displacement of families and businesses along the entire three-quarter-mile corridor. East-west through streets, including Lancaster, Oxford, Federal, and Newbury Streets, were dead-ended. And the Franklin Street we know today, with its vehicular mobility-focused street design, was the end result.
Beginning in the late 2000s, the City of Portland and advocates began to rethink Franklin Street. The most recent plan for Franklin, the Franklin Street Feasibility Study, recommended realigning the road and reducing its footprint, improving pedestrian infrastructure, adding bicycle and streetscape features, and reestablishing several cross streets to reconnect adjacent neighborhoods. This concept was unanimously adopted by the City Council on July 20, 2015.
In recent years, recognizing changes in the immediate context, there has been renewed focus on Franklin Street. Development has occurred along the street’s southern end and restoration work has occurred at Lincoln Park. The region’s Vision Zero Plan identified Franklin Street as a critical safety corridor and the Gorham-Westbrook-Portland Rapid Transit Study selected the southern end of Franklin Street as part of a future alignment for high quality rapid transit service. The result? The time for Reimagining Franklin Street is now!
Photo/image credits: Maine Memory Network, Portland Press Herald, Franklin Street Feasibility Study, Greater Portland Council of Governments, and WSP Inc.