Downtown Ballard Avenue was the focus of a Tuesday, Sept. 10 work session. Plans discussed, among others, included converting Ballard Avenue to a one-lane configuration with parallel parking, allowing for wider sidewalks, and potential alley improvements.  Sonia Duggan/The Wylie News

Wylie City Council gave direction for city staff to begin work on transforming Ballard Avenue into a one-lane thoroughfare after a work session at last week’s meeting. 

Council discussed the matter at a July meeting. As previously reported in The Wylie News, following council’s approval of a traffic study in 2022, city staff’s focus has centered on converting Ballard Avenue and Birmingham Street from two-way to one-way streets with parallel parking on both sides and wider sidewalks.

At the Sept. 10 meeting, Jenneen Elkhalid, engineering project manager for the city, gave a status update to council about the downtown project lane, parking and sidewalk configuration. She said city staff wanted some additional feedback from council so staff could have a clear path going forward.

In her presentation, Elkhalid said there was a stakeholder meeting on Aug. 7 in which there was discussion about downtown alley improvements, lane configuration options and effects on vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Stakeholders said they would like to proceed with the original one-lane configuration, and all of them preferred the one-lane option to maximize pedestrian space. 

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