When the team looked at Houston Lake Road, immediately the need for softening of this exposed space with plant materials was obvious. Currently, it is hot in the summer and lacking pedestrian space.
Above: A beautified Houston Lake Road, (looking south) with new amenities: street trees, a vegetated median, and new sidewalks separated from the roadway by a planting strip.
One of the first steps must be the planting of street trees along Houston Lake Road. Vegetation will provide an element of distinction from the dreariness of other roads leading into Warner Robins. It will also slow traffic and give people a reason to get out of their cars. Visitors find it difficult to tell whether they are in Centerville or Warner Robins. Even small steps such as street trees and shrubs on Houston Lake Road, will make visitors and residents feel themselves being pulled toward a center.
Houston Lake Road should be a place where it is pleasant to walk, pleasant to invest in, and a place where businesses make changes that are compatible with a new, unique Centerville character. To do this, infrastructure improvements and other physical changes along the highway are necessary.
Above: Rendering of the same area of Houston Lake Road with street trees, illustrating the difference small steps can make in growing a more pedestrian friendly Centerville.
Existing conditions of Houston Lake Road north of Highway 247.
