Development puts highlight on traffic issue

Public safety officer hit by truck last month at school

ROGERS — A proposed subdivision on West Pleasant Grove Road has some area residents worried about how it would impact the safety of children at the nearby elementary school.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to consider preliminary plans, three variances and a waiver for the 5-acre Soaring at Scissortail subdivision on Tuesday.

Leadership Properties has proposed a gated subdivision with 28 homes on small lots and a central neighborhood green area, according to founder Bob David.

Both city staff members and the developer have voiced concerns about the traffic problems but have very different solutions. If preliminary plans are approved, Leadership Properties will still have to bring final plans before the commission.

During two public hearings for rezoning the property in August, parents warned the crosswalk from Scissortail subdivision to the Evening Star Elementary School is dangerous for children. Adding more houses and more vehicles will only make the situation more hazardous, they said.

Last month, a Rogers public safety officer helping children cross the street received minor injuries after being hit by a pickup.

Evening Star serves 810 students in kindergarten through fourth grade, according to Leslie Wright, spokeswoman for the Bentonville School District. Slightly more than half of the students, or 434, ride a bus while the other half walk or ride in cars to school, she said.

The district is aware of the traffic problems at the school, Wright said. The crosswalk has flashing lights, crossing guards and warning signs to protect children, she said.

West Pleasant Grove Road is the dividing line between the cities of Rogers and Bentonville, but the Bentonville School District includes the neighborhoods on the Rogers side of the street, she said. There are several other areas where the school district boundaries do not follow city limit lines.

CONNECTIVITY CONUNDRUM

Improving West Pleasant Grove Road’s traffic flow is complicated, according to John McCurdy, Rogers community development director. Parts of the two- lane, unstriped road are owned by Rogers, Bentonville, Benton County and Cave Springs, he said. In some places, different cities each own halves of the same stretch of road, he said. It is illegal for Rogers to spend money improving a street in another city, he said.

Preliminary plans for the subdivision include variance requests for the required minimum building setbacks, the required minimum lot area and connectivity standards, along with a waiver for street improvements. City staff have recommended planning commissioners consider the variances for the minimum building setbacks and lot size, approve the waiver for street improvements and deny the wavier for connectivity standards.

The city’s connectivity ordinance requires subdivisions to have an entrance and exit every 660 feet and requires developers to build stubs, or temporary streets that can be extended to connect to future subdivisions, McCurdy said.

A connectivity variance would allow the subdivision to have one gated entrance and exit on West Pleasant Grove Road instead of keeping the streets open to the public and building a connection to the planned 230-home Buffington subdivision to the north.

David said the smaller Soaring at Scissortail subdivision needs to be gated and separate from the larger, proposed Buffington subdivision to keep people from using the roads in Soaring at Scissortail as a shortcut to the school and dumping more traffic near the intersection and crosswalk, creating an even more dangerous situation for students.

Leadership Properties is invested in the community, David said. The business developed the existing Scissortail subdivision and sold the land to the Bentonville School District for Evening Star Elementary, he said.

David has offered to pay for radar signs that tell drivers how fast they are going, he said.

“We feel like the safety at the school location is more important” than planners’ desire to have that connection with the Buffington subdivision, he said.

Gated subdivisions create bottlenecks, McCurdy said. Traffic flow problems tend to self correct as long as drivers have options, he said. For example, while some cars may use the connection between the proposed subdivisions as a route to the elementary school, other drivers will use the connection to find an alternate route that avoids the dangerous and congested area near the school, he said.

EXPLORING SOLUTIONS

The Community Development Department met Monday with the police chief, fire chief, chairman of the City Council’s transportation committee, the city engineer, officials from the Street Department, the chairman of the council’s transportation committee and the elementary school principal, McCurdy said.

Officials discussed the possibilities of traffic signals, a raised pedestrian crossing with a median, a standard roundabout, a mini roundabout and even a tunnel under the road, McCurdy said. They decided a raised crosswalk with an island or median in the middle would be the best short-term solution, he said.

The best long-term solution would be a roundabout, which is safer for cars and pedestrians when designed properly because it makes drivers stop and think, McCurdy said. In comparison, traffic signals encourage people to drive faster because drivers speed up when they see a green light, he said.

Leadership Properties has been working with city staff on plans for the subdivision for about a year, David said. The idea of a roundabout surprised the company and would take six or seven lots from the development, destroying plans for the subdivision, he said.

Scissortail resident Jennifer Gerhardt, who also spoke at a Planning Commission meeting in August, said at least 400 cars line up in the carpool lane every day, with the addition of construction trucks and people trying to get to work. She opposes the city’s idea to connect Buffington’s planned subdivision into the planned Soaring at Scissortail subdivision.

“I feel having an extra 300 cars emptying onto this road in front of the school will exponentially increase the risk of little kids being injured or killed by a car,” Gerhardt said.

Gerhardt also dislikes the roundabout proposal because she said it fails to address child safety or the number of cars on the road.

“We have yellow flashing lights, a crossing guard and police there twice per day, and the police officer still got hit,” she said.

Scissortail resident William Armistead had just crossed West Pleasant Grove Road with his three children when he witnessed the public safety officer get hit on Sept. 23. The day before, his friend and neighbor was nearly hit in the crosswalk and a year earlier, one of his sons almost got hit while riding a bicycle.

“It’s been an accident waiting to happen,” he said.

The traffic situation near the elementary school impacts people in other neighborhoods in the city that use the school, he said. Armistead suggested a flashing light over the crosswalk or a standard traffic signal to get drivers’ attention.

Armistead said he doesn’t see how a connection between Soaring at Scissortail and the Buffington subdivision would make traffic worse. If city planners recommend a connecting street, it needs to happen, he said.