Carson City, Nevada, requested technical assistance from EPA through the Greening America’s Capitals Program (now called Greening America’s Communities) to create a cohesive vision for East William Street and to begin planning, with local citizens and stakeholders, how the street could better serve the local community. Currently, the street is wide, traffic is fast-moving, and there are few bicycle or pedestrian amenities. In some sections, there are no sidewalks.

EPA hired a design team to develop design options that improve the comfort of pedestrians and cyclists while also addressing other city goals to create a sense of community identity (the street is the main entry to downtown from the east), collect and treat stormwater runoff, and encourage economic development along the street.

This report includes an assessment of conditions along East William Street, a discussion of goals, challenges, and opportunities identified during the three-day workshop in Carson City, and design options for East William Street. The design options outline potential improvements that could help East William Street become a smaller, slower city street, while providing new opportunities to capture and treat stormwater runoff through the use of green infrastructure, and make the street more walkable and bikeable.

The final chapter, Next Steps and Funding, captures the robust discussions that occurred during the workshop between the design team; city, state, and federal agency staff; and local business owners, residents, and other stakeholders. This chapter also presents ideas about how to pay for and implement the designs, and possible near-, mid-, and long-term actions that could catalyze improvements along East William Street.

• Greening America's Capitals: Carson City, Nevada (PDF)(46 pp, 6 MB, 2016)