When Danielle Breteau was looking for the perfect location for her gallery of fine art, Kagan & Baron, it was a toss up between a South Townsend location and a storefront on historic downtown’s Main Street.
“Downtown had much more charm, history,” Breteau said. “This is the area I’d visit if I was visiting the town.”
  
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“It was still under the radar, but had potential. I wanted to be a part of that.”
But with continuing growth and traffic, the downtown area has become a noise and traffic congested area.
Alice Baldrey-Kelley, co-owner of Sagebrush Books, knows all too well what 18-wheeler traffic can do.
Last week, an oversize semi truck turned off Main Street north onto Townsend Avenue right in front of her bookstore and took out her awning.
Greg Brewton, owner of Jovis Coffee, said he likes his location at 242 E. Main St., which attracts tourists passing through. He also enjoys having the plaza, which is at the corner of Main and Townsend, next door, but feels it’s not used to its full potential because of the traffic noise.
“Montrose has a big handicap compared to other downtowns,” Brewton said.
In the midst of the historic downtown area is the busy cross sections of two state highways, 50 and 550, which are maintained by the Colorado Department of Transportation. Trucks have to travel through town to reach their other destinations on the Western Slope.
Lyle Miller, senior manager at Radio Shack and employee for 16 years, said nothing is going to change until there is a southern bypass. He said there is more traffic coming from the south than ever before.
Currently, trucks don’t have many options when traveling from the south, but trucks do have the San Juan bypass for east-north traveling.
The bypass comes out onto Townsend at the Justice Center. It carries travelers around the northern side of town, meeting up with the eastern side of Main Street. It is maintained by the city.
Kerwin Jensen, city of Montrose community development director, said he met a few months ago with representatives from CDOT to discuss the plausibility of “trading” the bypass for Main Street.
“We can’t do anything different (with Main Street) under CDOT today,” he said. The swap could “add a lot of flexibility of what we could do with downtown.”
He’s only met with CDOT once, he said, to make sure they would even consider the idea. He will meet again with representatives next week to see if they can hash out more details including costs to both entities, signage and construction updates.
Currently the city does not have to maintain any stoplights because they are all owned by CDOT. If the switch happened, the city would have to train or hire employees to maintain the three stoplights they’d own on Main Street.
Other issues CDOT mentioned, Jensen said, was the traffic congestion at the intersection of Park Avenue and San Juan bypass, and the extra (about 0.75 miles) lane miles the department would have to take over.
Jensen said there would have to be many more discussions before both entities even find the trade plausible. But even city council members have been overheard discussing the idea, and it’s on many businesses wish lists.
But overall, people seem to enjoy the downtown area even though crossing the street may be a little scary. There have been good turnouts for events including the summer’s Main and Motion, and more holiday activities are keeping the owners optimistic.
Currently there are only three Main storefronts between Park and Selig Avenues that are for rent or lease.
“We really enjoy the feel of Main Street U.S.A.,” Brewton said. “Down south is just like any growing city.”
Contact Kati O’Hare via e-mail at katio@montrosepress.com
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