SANDPOINT — Changes are planned for the Division Avenue corridor and Sandpoint officials want to know what the public thinks.

A pair of open houses on the first phase of the corridor improvement project will be held Wednesday, March 29. The first will be held from noon to 1 p.m. and the second will be held from 5-7 p.m. Both will be held at Sandpoint City Hall, 1123 Lake St., in the council chambers.

The community is invited to drop by in-person during either session to talk with city staff and provide feedback regarding the preliminary design.

The project, which is in the design phase, is expected to go to bid in May. Construction will begin this summer once school is out for the year, Sandpoint officials said.

The first phase of the project include improvements on the roadway from the Superior Street area to approximately U.S. 2. Sandpoint officials said the first phase would construct a new sidewalk, add a planter strip, and realign the curb to calm traffic using a lateral shift.

Under a later shift, the roadway is realigned so it is no longer straight so that lanes are shifted in one direction or another, requiring drivers to slow to maneuver. On Division Avenue, the project calls for a narrowing of the road to the north while southbound travel lanes would be shifted to the west.

On the east side of Division, a wider frontage would be created, which would include a new sidewalk, planter strip, curb and gutters and driveway approaches.

A six-foot-wide sidewalk on the east side of Division would be built to create safer access for students to walk to school, as well as to improve pedestrian access to community destinations and neighborhoods, Sandpoint officials said.

The new planter strip on the east side of Division Avenue will provide greenspace in alignment with Sandpoint's Urban Forestry Master Plan as well as provide snow storage.

"The traffic calming measures will reduce vehicular speed and improve safety for motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists," Sandpoint officials said in a press release.

Identified in the Sandpoint's Multimodal Transportation Master Plan, the project was developed as results of a 2020 road safety audit. Sandpoint official said the project will create better pedestrian and bicycle access to schools, community destinations, and neighborhoods.

City officials estimate it will take 10-20 years to fully implement the entire Division Avenue corridor improvements. Funding for the first phase is through a state-funded Child Pedestrian Safety grant.