TEMPLE, Texas — The City of Temple has a new plan for the Temple Medical and Education District (TMED), which surrounds the area around Scott and White Memorial Hospital in the city.
City officials are now asking the community for feedback by March 4th.
The plan is designed to improve the surrounding community roads and make other public improvements to help the grow. The city created a 27 minute video on the improvements which can be found here.
Feedback can be emailed to NPDnews@Templetx.gov.
Some of those improvements will be for Temple's South 31st Street. These include a dedicated turn lane, better lighting, improved sidewalks, and combined driveways for nearby businesses to make turning onto the street safer.
"A single driveway could serve multiple businesses and then that access is shared to reduce the number of vehicles turning on or turning of South 31st street," Temple Senior Transportation Planner Jason Deckman said.
The plan also suggests changes for South 1st street. This could include expanding the sidewalks and adding landscaping, adding a median to the street, and improving the entrance to the Temple V-A.
The plan would also improve multiple other streets in the area by adding sidewalks or bike lanes. These could include 3rd street, 9th, 13th, 23rd, 29th, and Avenue P.
The plan would also extend several streets between the Baylor Scott and White Memorial Campus and Temple College to provide better connectivity between those areas.
Yet another recommendation from the plan would significantly change South 5th street south of the loop. A portion of that street would be redirected to connect to South 1st street and would go though proposed commercial and residential areas. The land east of 5th street may be used for farm land right now, but the city is envisioning a "walkable, mixed use community" called the "TMED South Neighborhood" according to Deckman.
A draft of the plan, which contains many additional elements, can be found here.
