The Madison State Street Design Oversight Committee decided last night to remove two benches on State Street because of reported problems of loitering and drug dealing.

The committee had been working on a design of State Street for a reconstruction project. One of the key issues on the agenda was to respond to the requests made to remove public benches outside Jimmy John’s and KFC/Taco Bell on State Street. Committee members also discussed increasing bike racks to meet a larger demand.

Mike Stone, supervisor of the KFC/Taco Bell’s State Street branch, said that he had seen a lot of problems with the bench outside the fast food restaurant.

“We have seen a lot of problems, had a lot of customer complaints,” he said. “Things from smoking on the bench and customers complaining the smoke was coming right inside to drug dealing outside.”

Despite general positive response to removal of certain public benches, some believed that removal or relocation of public benches would not solve the problems of drug dealing and loitering. Rebecca Lee, a resident who had been living on State Street for 43 years, said that removing the benches was not a satisfactory solution.

“[The] population that causes the most headache, you are just shifting them around. They leave one part, they go to another,” she said.

Aside from requests made due to safety concerns, the committee also received requests from local businesses to relocate public furniture to accommodate sidewalk cafes and vending spots.

Rebecca Cnare from Department of Planning and Community and Economic Development said she had contacted most property owners on State Street, and had either not heard back from them or received generally positive responses on increasing bike parking spaces.

Mary Carbine, representative of the Business Improvement District which worked with property and business owners on State Street and the Capitol Square, said she appreciated the committee’s focus on bicycle parking, and she agreed that bicycle parking spaces downtown were not adequate.

She also said that there was a relationship between the physical environment of the street and the behavior of the people in it.

The committee finally voted to approve the removal of the two benches. Members also approved the motion of adding trash receptacles in 500 block on State Street.

“This committee, I think, works very diligently with all the different property owners and business owners along the street to emplace the street furniture,” said Bill Fruhling, one of the committee members. “That doesn’t only mean just the benches and the bike racks, but also the planters and the trash receptacles and kind of all that stuff between mainland sidewalk and the curb.”

In terms of how the committee made decisions about moving or removing bike racks and benches, Fruhling said that the principle involved having a flexible design.

“One of the things that this design strives to achieve is to have street elements that are flexible to accommodate the way the street is used over time,” said Fruhling.