City officials in Council Bluffs will vote Monday night on plan to give the city's busiest street a big makeover.
Crews could start rebuilding west Broadway from 15th to 36th in March, the first phase will be construction from 36th to 33rd.
Some businesses along the route want to put the brakes on one specific part of the work.
While more than a 1,000 signatures say medians will take away customers to Broadway businesses, the mayor of Council Bluffs says medians will have the opposite effect.
"Almost every state in the Midwest has done studies,” said Mayor Matt Walsh. “In actuality it proves that sales not only is not adversely effective, but is improved."
The $35 million public and privately funded project would completely reconstruct nearly two miles of Broadway, adding sewer lines, water mains and various decorative features such as paved bricks.
"It's pretty important,” Walsh said. “It's our front door, as I've called it and it really gives the first impression of Council Bluffs."
Since November, there have been more than 1,000 signatures to change the project so it doesn't include medians.
Some business owners along Broadway fear medians will take away customers.
"Traffic count will go down and that they'll have to divert some of the traffic onto Avenue A," said Matt Atherton, owner of Atherton Automotive.
Walsh disagrees and says the medians will do more good than harm by increasing property values and looking more attractive to potential customers.
"It's been exhaustively studied and their fears have not been founded," Walsh said.
Not everyone agrees.
Atherton says it feels good to know hundreds of his customers don't want the medians either.
"It makes me feel like we're on the right track,” Atherton said. “We felt that it was going to be a distraction for our customers and they agree."
One customer says he doesn't want the medians because he says they're an inconvenience.
"You can beautify this without making medians,” said Anquon White. “If you really want to beautify it, you can do something with the sidewalks."
Monday’s city council meeting, at 7 p.m., will be a vote on who the city who will engineer the project.
The mayor says he will take the petitions against the medians seriously, weighing on a decision to move forward with the project.
