By Andra Bryan Stefanoni

news@joplinglobe.com

PITTSBURG, Kan. — The Pittsburg Planning and Zoning Commission will have a special meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at City Hall to discuss a request by Pittsburg State University to control traffic on Joplin Street where it bisects the campus.

Doing so would allow the university to construct a pedestrian plaza west of Brandenburg Stadium, much like the plaza built a few years ago on Cleveland Street north of Overman Student Center.

In November, PSU President Tom Bryant requested at a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting that the city vacate Joplin Street for construction of a pedestrian plaza between Cleveland and Lindburg streets. He said it would improve safety and aesthetics now that the core of the campus has shifted east.

The request drew the fire of many residents, most of whom live to the south of the university. They protested that closing the street would hamper traffic flow and possibly increase traffic on the parallel Homer Street, which passes an elementary school.

The Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-2 against the proposal at the November meeting.

Bryant and PSU officials made another request in December. Their presentation to the City Commission was made up of alternatives that left commissioners saying the request was more palatable. It still was disagreeable to residents such as Arvilla Hubbard. She cited inconvenience and a possible slower response time for emergency vehicles.

“It would cut off one of three main arteries connecting north and south Pittsburg,” she said.

PSU’s latest request, to be discussed Monday night, is for the use of what planners call “traffic calming devices,” including limited-access gates and/or a slightly elevated plaza area that cars would have to travel across at a reduced speed.

“About 6,600 of our students are on campus on a pretty daily basis,” Bryant said last month. “We have faculty and staff, and a lot of visitors. We are trying to make the environment as safe as we can. One of the ways, of course, to do that is to try to eliminate the interaction of cars and people.”

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