Agenda - Council - 09/09/1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

$ O U T H D "S T j :.~ .J P ~ A L August 13 -August 26, 1997 Lowry Hill residents agitated by traffic-calming measures Aug. 4 meeting turns bitter as organized residents, oppose much of traffic calming plan. BY MARTIGA LO.HN Opposition to temporary traffic circles and speed humps installed . throughout the Lowry HiLl neighborhood late last year final- ly boiled over at a c.ommunity ' meeting Aug. 4. More than 100 people -- the clear maiority opposed to the _ temporary traffic-calming tests, instal/ed as paint of Lowry H[iI's Neighborhood Revitalization Program plan -- wenf to Ken- wood Recreation Center for a meeting'led by GouncZilmember Pat Scott (7th Ward) and Mi&ad Monahan, the'dty's director of · transportation. At the door, members of the Kefiwood-Isles Residents' NRP Coalition for Traffic ~afet7- a group of Lowry Hill and East Isles residents, and not to be con- fused with the Kenwood-Isles · Area AssoHation, a separate' neighborhood group -- handed out a resolution urging immedi- ate removal of all traffic-calming tests. "The obstructio'ns were'p u~' there to improve the neighbor- hood;' said Jim Ulland, a coali- tion member who wrote the res- olution. "But the neighbors don't like thim.'They think it has harmed the neighborhoocU' U/land's resolution called the temporary traffic drdes and speed humps "dangerous, annoy- ing, unsightly and expensive." Many L0~ Hill re~ldenB $atd that traffic circle~ like thi~ -one at 22nd and Girard are confusing and hazakdou~ and $hould be remOved. Another go.at traffic Calming. The city has proposed the following changes in. Lowry Hill:' [] remove the temporary throating at 22nd and East Lake ot~ the. Isles Parkway;. [] replace the temporary circle.at Logan and Lini0.!n With a raised. crosswalk; [] remove temporary ch-des along Douglas, ~nstall a ne~v four-way stop at Douglas and .Dupont, test two temporary speed tables, and revise, the traffic circle at Dougl~ and Loganl "· [] find another way to slow traffic at Lincoln .and Fremont, site ofa. . temporary circle; .. ' [] evaluate 22nd and Emerson for ~ ne~i,'four-way Stop sign. Members of Lowry Hill Reft- dents Inc. -- who postponed dis- cussion on traffic calming at their well-attended May 27 annu-' al meeting ~ for the most part looked on as their neighbors railed against the ch'des a~d humps. LHRI pr,esident Fran Davis urged people interested in working on the issue to sign up in the back of the room; six peo- ple did so. "What will the neighborhood association do?" was the question hanging in the air, since many members of the group, including former president and current board member David Lilly, have supported the traffic-calming devices. Several hoard members defended the circles and humps . at the community meeting, but a former board member spgke against them. The board acts as the neighborhood's NRP Steer2 lng Committee. "Hopefully we"can ~nove for'- ward fi:om here to come up with some viable options that will bring people together insteid of' I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I