Adams Avenue Was Planned as Sisters' Other Way Across Town

The orange barrels are gone from Adams Avenue. In their place is a wide shared path for people on foot and on bikes, young street trees in grates, new curbs at every corner and painted circles in the intersections. All summer, drivers looped the block trying to find a way in. In August, one farm stand operator told The Nugget, "You have to drive around a few laps to figure out how to get in." The City of Sisters marked the finished project with a ribbon-cutting on Friday, October 23, at the corner of N. Ash Street and Adams, across from Sisters Artworks.

Calling this a facelift misses most of it. The rebuild finishes an eight-year-old plan to give downtown a second east-west street. Adams is meant to carry trips that would otherwise use Cascade Avenue, and to turn a corridor that never had sidewalks or parking into a place where buildings can go up. Downtown's own growth paid for it.

A Street That Was Never Finished

Before this year, Adams was the odd one out downtown. Mayor Jennifer Letz told The Nugget the goal was to "see Adams match the other streets in downtown." The paper called the corridor "one of downtown's rougher edges." Her reason for spending on it was about development more than looks:

"Since Adams has lacked sidewalks and parking, this has stymied any building or development. Urban Renewal Agency tax dollars were invested along this corridor to spur construction of businesses and homes in this prime location."

Letz said that in the same Nugget report. The paper describes the corridor as businesses on the west end and homes to the east. Officials pitched the project as a way to make the whole stretch a better place to invest, live and shop.

The traffic purpose goes back further than the development pitch. Adams was always supposed to give drivers another way across town besides Cascade Avenue, which is Highway 20. Planners listed that east-west link as a priority in the original 2018 grant application. The city's Downtown Sisters Urban Renewal Plan says the same thing more broadly. It wants Cascade to become more pedestrian-friendly, and it calls for an alternative to Cascade for through traffic, especially trucks and recreational vehicles. That plan also describes a separate idea, a one-way couplet with eastbound traffic on Hood and westbound traffic on Main. Adams is its own project, but both ideas share one goal: taking some of the load off Cascade.

What Got Built Between Cedar and Pine

The project rebuilt Adams from Cedar Street to Pine Street, along with the short side-street sections running from Adams toward Main Avenue and the mid-block alley. The Nugget described it as a full rebuild of a corridor roughly 80 feet wide. The work included new concrete sidewalks, wider asphalt paths, fresh pavement, more on-street parking, stormwater upgrades, underground electrical work and new street lighting.

The bid documents show the size of the job. Here they are next to how The Nugget described the plan in August:

These are planned quantities. The finished street may not match them exactly. Much of the work is underground and easy to forget once it is covered: catch basins, drain lines, sedimentation manholes, drywells and drain-rock galleries for handling runoff. The city's project page scheduled the new lights to go in by mid-October.

The Shared Path Is the Design Choice People Talk About

Adams has no painted bike lanes. Instead, the city widened the sidewalks into paths that walkers and cyclists share. According to The Nugget, officials say this cuts the distance a person has to walk across the street by close to a third and slows traffic. This choice also ties back to the bypass purpose. A street meant to take traffic off Cascade needs to be easy to cross, or it just moves the problem one block over.

The choice has drawn some debate. The paper noted at least one letter to the editor asking whether mixing bikes and foot traffic could cause trouble for kids, older residents and anyone using a wheelchair or walker. Now that the paths are open, everyday use this winter and next summer will show how the shared space works.

Eight Years, Paid for by Downtown Itself

The timeline explains why the street sat unfinished so long. As The Nugget tells it, planning began in 2018 with a state transportation grant. At an open house that year, 20 of 21 people chose the same design concept, and the city council approved it in 2019. Then the pandemic, other priorities and the question of money kept it on the shelf for most of five years. The Urban Renewal Agency voted to move forward in July 2025. The city says the design itself was finished in 2019 and updated in 2022 and again in 2025.

The cost figures changed at each stage:

1. 2021: The city's estimate was $4 million. It listed street system development charges, the Urban Renewal Agency and developer contributions as funding sources.
2. July 2025: A URA staff report set aside $3.46 million in the fiscal 2025/26 budget. It also selected Hickman, Williams & Associates for final design and construction management, with LOCI Studio as a subcontractor.
3. March 2026: The council awarded the construction contract to Deschutes Construction Corp. with a cap of $3,552,956.50.

Most of the money came through the Sisters Urban Renewal Agency. The agency is funded by the extra property tax revenue that comes in as assessed values in the downtown area rise. The Nugget notes that the same source paid for earlier work on Cascade and Hood avenues, Fir Street Park and other downtown projects. In other words, downtown's rising values paid to rebuild the one downtown street that had been left behind. Adams is the latest in a string of projects most residents have already used.

The schedule slipped somewhat along the way. The bid documents set an August 31 completion deadline. In August, The Nugget was projecting September. The city later expected substantial completion in October, which is when it held the ceremony. That stretched the work across a full summer season, and businesses along the route paid for it. In August, The Nugget reported that some owners described the construction as seriously hurting their sales, and that the operators of The Stand said business was down even as they thanked customers and the crews who worked to keep their frontage open. Those reports came while construction was still going. The finished street gets its first real test with shoppers this winter.

Walking the New Adams

Not many destinations have Adams Avenue addresses yet, which fits what the mayor said about a corridor held back from development. Here are a few worth a stop on the new paths:

• Habitat for Humanity ReStore, 254 W Adams Ave. This donated-goods store supports Sisters Habitat's homebuilding work. Hours are posted on its website.
• 304 W Adams Ave, a multi-tenant building that houses Mellness, a wellness business, among other offices.
• Sisters Artworks, across from the N. Ash and Adams corner where the ribbon was cut.
• The Stand, 254 E Adams Ave. This seasonal farm stand's Travel Oregon listing says it runs from early May through the end of October. By that schedule, its 2026 season ended with October, and its first full season on the finished street would begin next spring.

You can also try the street the way it was designed to work. On your next trip across town, use Adams instead of Cascade and see how the crossings and parking feel.

Another project from the same funding source is getting ready for the holidays. Sisters Park & Recreation District's Holiday Palooza is set for Saturday, November 28. It starts with a parade from 3:30 to 4:15 p.m. on Main Street, followed by activities at Fir Street Park, 150 N. Fir St., and the tree lighting from 5 to 5:15 p.m. Urban renewal dollars helped build that park too.

If you're curious how a new street like Adams, or the building that may follow along it, affects your corner of Sisters, I'm always happy to walk it with you and talk it through. You can reach me through Marge Gatien. Let's Connect.