Downtown Plaza Could Change The Way Sacramento Connects
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — When the Downtown Plaza arena opens in 2016, you may have a whole new way to get to it as the Sacramento City Council examines new ways to connect the arena with the rest of downtown.
Ahead of the opening of the arena, city leaders asked the Urban Land Institute to create bold ideas to unlock the arena's economic potential.
One of the biggest ideas is taking the front door to Downtown Sacramento on Fourth Street that's a dead-end into a parking garage and instead reopening traffic to cars and creating an Urban Plaza.
"So Fourth Street was the historical front door to the Sacramento station, the historic train depot," said Jeffrey Goldman with the Urban Land Institute. "We want to make Fourth Street the front door again."
Fifth Street could also be in for a change, as it dips underneath the Downtown Plaza. The plan is to make it more pedestrian friendly.
"What we're looking at is options to have shared space that could be for pedestrians and bicycles, we haven't worked out the details for that yet," he said.
The long-planned streetcar line between West Sacramento and Sacramento is also a key feature in the new report.
"Light rail is very heavy, it creates a barrier, streetcars are much lighter, they're much more compatible with a pedestrian environment," Goldman said.
