Originally posted at The Gazette:
In our country today where our vice president won’t even go to the border to see the serious problems, it’s refreshing to have an elected official take a hands-on approach to get firsthand knowledge of a problem. The El Paso County commissioners recently approved a development in the Monument area that would result in making a dead-end street a through street. These “cut-through” streets represent a significant safety threat if not done correctly. Studies show that traffic volume and speeds increase considerably and often result in an increase in serious accidents.
A group of four HOAs around this proposed cut-through street have presented our concerns to the County Planning Commission and the commissioners as this development was going through the approval process. We were told that our concerns needed to be voiced to the Department of Public Works as it would be responsible for traffic calming measures that might be implemented to mitigate safety concerns. The Department of Public Works has agreed to hire an independent traffic consultant to work with residents to develop a safety plan for our street, but progress has been very slow in getting started.
We called our County Commissioner, Holly Williams, requesting a meeting to discuss our concerns and next steps. Not only did she agree to meet but, to her credit, she suggested we have the meeting in our neighborhood so she could see for herself what aspects of this cut-through concerned us. She met with our group in the evening (after hours) and walked the entire street as we pointed out our safety concerns. She agreed there were significant potential safety issues and committed to meeting with the Department of Public Works to understand their plan.
There is still much work to do, but we could not have been more pleased that our commissioner took her personal time to come on site and hear our concerns directly. We need more elected officials like Holly Williams.
Mark Spowart
Monument