Rochester wanted art, now opts for more walkability in central plaza

Despite widespread discontent with the state of the project, the Rochester City Council voted Wednesday to approve a patchwork approach to smooth over concerns about the accessibility of the city’s redesigned Peace Plaza.

“At this point, not having a great solution and a big bucket of money just to throw at something, I do feel it’s our best option at the moment,” said Council Member Andy Friederichs.

The resolution authorized the city to begin turning over swaths of pavers with raised letterings on the plaza that disability advocates say have become tripping hazards. To pay for the modifications, the city will use $175,000 of state aid earmarked though the Destination Medical Center initiative.

The raised pavers, part of a poetry installation included in the $19.4 million renovation of Peace Plaza, have received significant backlash over the past two years from community members concerned about the safety risks.

While city officials initially defended the design, noting it complied with Americans With Disabilities Act standards, they later concluded modifications were needed to improve accessibility on the plaza. Those changes will include flipping over some of the raised pavers to widen the smooth pathway around the plaza while still preserving the majority of the art installation.

“For the most part, people are experiencing it in a fairly positive way,” Deputy City Administrator Cindy Steinhauser told the council. “But that’s not good enough. We need to make sure everybody is experiencing it in a way that they are comfortable and encouraged to continue to want to come down.”

Council members were not entirely confident in the city’s plans. Several questioned whether the changes do enough to ease concerns about pavers settling and becoming uneven.

Council Member Norman Wahl, who joined Shaun Palmer in voting against the proposal, said it was time to move on from the design, even if that meant prolonging construction on the plaza.

“I think this was a gallant effort by people who planned, who dreamed, who hoped — and I don’t think it’s worked," Wahl said. “I think it needs a new solution.”

Costs and timing, however, were top of mind for other members of the council. City officials presented cost estimates showing it would take up to $1 million to replace all the raised pavers or up to $5 million to install a concrete subsurface under the pavers. The latter could take as long as two years to complete, officials said.

“I see this as our incremental step toward acknowledging that it’s not perfect, making a fundamental improvement with what we can and getting to the next stage where we can truly evaluate this without making a bigger mistake,” Council Member Nick Miller said.

Also included in the funding request from the city is about $50,000 to study what has caused many pavers in the plaza to shift or sink since installation. Pressed with questions from the council about whether the findings could lead to additional maintenance costs, city staff members said they would not have an answer until the review is finished at the end of the summer.

Mayor Kim Norton, who spoke in favor of the staff plan, suggested she would like to learn more about why the original contractors who installed the uneven pavers have not been held liable.

In an interview earlier this month, Steinhauser said the city has not completed its analysis of whether to pursue action against the contractors.

Work on the plaza is expected to begin in early spring and last through summer. The plan, Steinhauser said, is to work in increments in an effort to reduce interruptions to businesses and events.