09/09/97 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

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 drcles and speed humps installed . throughout the Lowry Hill .neighborhood late last year final- ly boiled over at a community' meeting Aug. 4. More than I00 people -- the clear majority opposed to the _ temporary traffic<aiming tests, -' installed as pa?t of Lowry Hill's Neighborhood Revitalization Program plan m went to Ken- wood Recreation Center for a meetlng'led by Coundlmember Pat Scott' (7th Ward) and Michael Monahan, the'dty's director of transportation. At the door, members of the Keriwood-Isles Residents' NRP Coalition for Traffic Safety m a group of Lowry Hill and East Isles residents, and not to be con- fused with the Kenwood-Isles · Area Assokiation, a separate· neighborhood group -- handed out a resolution urging immedi- ate removal of all traffic-calming tests. "The obstructi0~s were put'' there to improve the neighbor- hood;' said Jirn Ulland, a coali- tion member who wrote the res- olution. "But the neighbors don't like th~m. They think it has harmed the neighborhood:' Ulland's resolution called the temporary traffic circles and speed humps "dangerous, annoy- ing, unsightly and expensive:' Many LoWry Hill residents said that'trafflc circles ilke this ' -one at 22nd and Girard are confusing and hazardous and should be remOved. Another go. attraffic Calming. The city has proposed the'following changes inlLowry Hill:' · remove the temPorary throating at 22nd and East Lake of the ' Isles Parkway;. :. " · replace the temporary circle at Logan and Lincoln '~ith a'raised crosswalk; ' · remove temporary circles along Douglas, install a new four-way stop at Douglas and Dupont, test two temporary speed tables, and revise, the traffic circle at Douglas and Logan; "- . · · find another way to slow traffic at Lincoln and Fremont, Site of a. · temporary circle; .- ' ' · evaluate 22nd and Emerson for a ne&'four-way stop sign. Members of Lowry Hill Resi- 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 circles arid 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 membir David Lilly, have supported the traffic-calming devices. Several board 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 Steer; · lng Committee. "Hopefully w~'can move for'- ward fi:om here to come up with some viable options that will bring people together instead of'