For Becky Sims of Old Lynchburg Road, the biggest problem on her block is “feeling safe. It’s the traffic. Obviously, the police can’t keep up with the speeding, and the traffic violations. We have huge speeding issues,” she says.
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Old Lynchburg Road at the JPA intersection. |
Sims is one among many of the road’s residents who say that, to date, not enough has been done to curb speeding on the notoriously dicey corridor, even as development south of Azalea Park has meant more county traffic for that portion of road. City Engineer Tony Edwards acknowledged that traffic between the park and Jefferson Park Avenue is “always an issue.” “The road doesn’t expand but the traffic seems to.”
That may soon change. Sims and about 25 local residents met with planners last Wednesday to comment on planned improvements to the road. Plans for the corridor, notorious for its bends, limited sightlines and poor drainage, include a bike lane, a system to manage storm water, and a stretch of sidewalk made contiguous by two crosswalks. Signage and a median are among other measures included in an effort to improve traffic safety.
The plans had been changed to reflect local input gathered at a similar meeting last October. This year, residents’ concerns ranged from the aesthetics of proposed retaining walls, which must be installed in portions to accommodate sidewalks, to the prevalence of mosquitoes in the neighborhood, an issue some tied to drainage problems.
Chad Van Hyning, an engineer working on the project, said that since the first round of public input, engineers “looked a lot more closely at storm water management, and where we can put in a facility to address that.” One potential place is on the property of Fry’s Spring Beach Club, which sits at the corner of Jefferson Park Avenue and Old Lynchburg Road.
That was news to Jeff Greer, who serves on the beach club’s board of directors and lives on Old Lynchburg Road. Greer said the basin is “interesting,” and that it’s “a blue sky thing.” Former beach club president Pat Healy added that, for now, the basin is “20 lines on a piece of paper. But it’s interesting.” He continued, “The beach club has a unique relationship with the neighborhood, in that so many people in the neighborhood are politically active, but they’re also members of the beach club. So we’re all trying to look out for each other, and hopefully everybody goes home happy when they stroke the last piece of concrete.”
If the plans receive positive feedback from residents, Edwards said the plans will go before City Council “as soon as possible.” For now, Sims, an avid gardener, is holding off on plans to landscape her front yard until she knows what the new sidewalks will look like. Jeanne Chase, Fry’s Spring Neighborhood Association’s corresponding secretary and a 32-year resident of Old Lynchburg Road, says that the new design is “going to be marvelous. It’s what we’ve been needing for 35 years,” she said. “We’re going to think we had Christmas 365 days a year.”
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