Originally Posted by
Lee Chowaniec
Kudos to the newly elected town board for its management of the first official town board meeting for 2016 - which included a lengthy organizational meeting. Appointees to various board and committee positions dispelled many of the rumors that had been circulating the town in recent weeks.
Most noteworthy to this individual was the exchange that took place between resident Mike Fronczak and newly elected Supervisor Johanna Coleman regarding town development strategy and especially traffic along William Street.
Fronczak: It may be a little premature to ask right now but could you give some idea as what direction the town is going to take regarding building, infrastructure, etc; especially paying attention to the William Street corridor? We have recently tried to get ditches filled between Transit and Aurora.
Coleman: Mike, I can only speak for myself but I know I have had number of conversations with the other board members, particularly in the south end of town and especially William Street because I live in that neighborhood. I ride William Street often and it is congested. It is not the sleepy little farm road it used to be. And so, this board needs to take a close look at any development that is going to be coming and critique it; not just there but everywhere in town. You can’t try to get square pegs in round holes. There might be some developments in other communities that work there but do not fit in Lancaster.
So yes, that will be looked at on individual basis. And we trust that (John Abraham) who is going to be the liaison with the planning board, who has been going to their meetings, will keep us informed.
Councilman John Abraham: One of the things we have been looking at is the town code. We don’t have a classification IV for patio homes. We are restructuring the code to do those in one form or another. They have come along in the past 10 – 15 years. So just to give you an idea, we are reviewing the code to get the code to fit into the town needs.
Fronczak: Do we know if we ever got the funding that Legislator Ted Morton was looking for to fill in the ditches along William Street?
Coleman: I haven’t heard about that from him. He has indicated that he is looking forward to working with us; and we will work with him. Today is the first day in the office, so… I am spending a lot of time transitioning files, etc. so I can’t see myself jumping into anything in the month of January. My dance card seems to be full right down.
But as time goes on and spring comes we are going to have more developers come and they will want to get started. We understand what the pain is. I don’t dislike developers but there is a place for everything. You have to understand that developers are property owners and have a constitutional right to petition their government; and that’s what we are. And when we take away their rights, we lose those same rights. So they will come. They will ask and we have to be careful in saying no.
Comments
I appreciate Mrs. Coleman’s acknowledgement that she travels William Street, that she recognizes it is an overburdened two-lane county road, and that she feels the pain of residents living on William Street and in subdivisions along William Street who travel this congested road. She and Abraham speak on some code changes in the master plan under review – a master plan that has not been reviewed and updated since its adoption in 2002 – a review and updating that was called for by then council member Dan Amatura in 2008 and by residents thereafter.
Unfortunately, the barn door has been closed after the horses had been let out. For years residents living along William Street have petitioned the town for traffic and traffic safety relief and have been told that William Street is a county road and the town can’t do anything about it. So, development continued unabated throughout the years with the only road improvement coming with turning lanes and signalization at the intersections of Penora, Aurora and Lake Avenue.
Not only did residential development continue along a two-lane county road that was considered at max capacity in 2008, but commercial development took place at Aurora and with the added development of a Wal-Mart and several other retail business at the intersection of Transit and William – the great majority of them possible because of town approved rezones.
William Street has been improved to the point that it’s as good as it is going to get. The town can’t even manage to get the open drainage ditches piped and filled – a very unsafe condition. And yet the building goes on and once the new county sewer line goes into operation Windsor Ridge South will be able to complete its next phases in building another 200+ homes that are in the pipeline; and which allow for further construction and more traffic on William.
Good luck Supervisor Coleman, I wish you well. Your intent may be sincere but unless building along William is curtailed or another major east-west corridor is constructed conditions will only worsen. As you declared, “you can’t put a square peg in a round hole.”
You have inherited a mess that should have been dealt with years ago when the county had the resources and where there was political will for parties to come together and act in the best interest of the community; and not the best interests of today’s political parties and/or their personal agendas.
As for developers having constitutional property rights, isn't protecting the safety and property rights of its constituents the primary responsibility of the town?
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