The City of Poulsbo is developing its first-ever Complete Streets Plan. The Poulsbo Complete Streets Plan will support safe streets for people of all ages and abilities, with a focus on increasing safety, access, and connectivity for people walking, bicycling, using a wheelchair, or other mobility devices. The plan will develop policies, identify best practices, and recommend projects that advance safety and connectivity, help reduce congestion, and enhance Poulsbo's streetscape for all the City's travelers.

The City has developed this Online Open House to invite the public to learn more about the project and to gather community feedback. Your feedback is important and will help the City identify issues, opportunities, and potential projects related to transportation safety and connectivity throughout the City. Your feedback will also inform the development and prioritization of potential Complete Streets projects for the City to invest in over time. The Online Open House will be open for responses until March 22nd, 2024.

The plan will accomplish multiple objectives for Poulsbo’s future network of Complete Streets. The plan will:

• Establish community-based goals and objectives to guide priorities and City investments in Complete Streets.
• Assess gaps, needs, and opportunities in the City’s pedestrian and bicycle system.
• Develop a suite of “typologies” or street types to respond to Poulsbo’s local land uses, development patterns, and transportation context.
• Identify Complete Streets projects and actions to invest in over time.
• Recommend policies and updates to local street standards to support Complete Streets implementation.
• Develop planning-level cost estimates and implementation strategies to help the City take cost-effective action.

Projects and policy recommendations will be based on goals and objectives that reflect local needs and priorities, as informed by the Poulsbo community. To achieve this, the City has convened a project Stakeholder Advisory Committee comprised of local residents, agency and institutional representatives, and elected leaders to shape the planning process. In addition, the City is engaging the general public and asking for community input via this Online Open House.

"Complete Streets" refer to streets that provide safe and appropriate spaces for all travelers, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders of all ages and abilities. Today, most of Poulsbo's streets prioritize cars, which can create unsafe environments for other kinds of travelers, such as kids walking to school, wheelchair users, transit riders, and people using bikes for commuting or exercise. Complete Streets can create a safer and more welcoming urban environment for Poulsbo’s different kinds of road users and can also provide new opportunities to support local businesses, address parking issues, and beautify local streetscapes. The illustration below provides a simplified representation of a potential Complete Street:

Click the image below to enlarge.

It's important to note that not all streets in Poulsbo are appropriate for Complete Streets. Therefore, an important aspect of this planning effort is to identify a network of Complete Streets that provides the best balance of safety and access for all modes of transportation. Furthermore, it's important to note that not all Complete Streets will look the same, and that specific street designs must respond to local land use and transportation contexts. To address these planning considerations, the City and the project Stakeholder Advisory Committee have drafted a suite of “typologies” or types of Complete Streets that can are appropriate for different areas of the City. Read more about these types of Complete Streets in the following section.

Poulsbo is a unique place, so one of the important principles of this project is to avoid a “one size fits all” approach to Complete Streets. The project team and project Stakeholder Advisory Committee have drafted six (6) street “types” to reflect the different land uses, development patterns, and transportation needs in Poulsbo. The illustration below summarizes these street types and provides a short description of the land use and transportation context assigned to each:

Click the image below to enlarge.

Building on the street types above, the City has been working with the project Stakeholder Advisory Committee to begin drafting a future potential Complete Streets network throughout the City. As noted above, not all streets in Poulsbo have been identified as Complete Streets. Furthermore, the plan assumes that the “types” of Complete Streets throughout the City will differ in terms of design, scale, and impact as appropriate with the local surroundings. The map below summarizes the draft Complete Streets Network, shown in colors to reflect each of the street types. The City invites you to review this draft Complete Streets network and share your feedback with us in the following sections.

Click the image below to enlarge.

As described above, community feedback is a critical element to the Poulsbo Complete Streets Plan. Please share your thoughts with the City about transportation needs and issues below, as well as your thoughts on the draft street types and Complete Streets network.

Your feedback will directly inform the City’s planning process on the following:

• Identification of transportation hotspots and areas of concern, with a focus on making the City safer and better-connected for people walking, bicycling, riding transit, using a wheelchair, or other mobility device, regardless of age and ability.
• Refinement of the Complete Streets typologies and draft network.
• Identification of potential Complete Streets projects to be prioritized and recommended in the Poulsbo Complete Streets Plan.

Please use the interactive tools below to share your feedback with the City on these important topics. All feedback related to transportation will be considered.