Mission Road from 47th St to 53rd St is planned for 2025 construction. Staff has been working with design engineers and Westwood staff to refine the scope of the project elements. The project entails spot curb repair/replacement, sidewalk repair, asphalt base repairs, mill & overlay, streetlighting, and potential marked bike lanes. Please see the attached presentation that will provide additional information about the project.

Also attached are the survey results completed as joint effort by Westwood and Roeland Park and designed to gain insight from residents concerning design elements. This information was reviewed at a neighborhood meeting on 03/28/22. 

Design Elements Needing Direction from Council:

1. Currently street lights are mounted to electric power poles on the east side of Mission. The heavy tree canopy on the east side of the street diminishes the dispersion of lighting. Installing street light poles on the east side is hindered by separation requirements between light poles and the overhead electric lines. In addition, the grass area between the back of curb and the sidewalk which is where street light poles normally would be located, has a storm pipe under it precluding placing street light poles above. These hurdles lead to looking at the west side of the street for new street lights. The west side of the street has minimal space for street light poles to be placed on the backside of the sidewalk. Utility and temporary construction easements will be needed from these property owners to install street lights on the west side of the street. These are the same property owners who will not be allowed to park on street if dedicated bike lanes are included in the design. This could result in condemnation in order to secure the needed easements.

An agreement would also need to be executed between Westwood and Roeland Park to address the shared ongoing cost of the ownership of streetlights placed on the west side of the street as these lights would be designed to light the roadway and sidewalks located in Westwood as well as Roeland Park. The street light poles are anticipated to be 30' tall, the pole is currently a standard round design. An ornamental pole could be employed but the mounting height and arm length for the luminaire is driven by the need to spread lighting from sidewalk to sidewalk from lights on one side of the street.

2. This section of the Mission corridor is identified in our Bike and Sidewalk Master Plan as having bike lanes. The existing roadway is wide enough to accommodate two vehicle traffic lanes and dedicated bike lanes. Currently there is no parking on the east side of Mission. Installing dedicated bike lanes would generally require no parking on both sides of Mission. The preliminary design has looked at adding an additional off street parking spot for houses with a single stall drive. This is possible for most but not all of the houses. 

Staff is looking for direction on final design for the street lighting and bike lanes.