Winding road may find new direction

A rezoning request for a 20-acre tract of land north of State Route AC has spurred discussion about long-term plans to reconstruct Rock Quarry Road, a paved street that carries a scenic designation.

“The rezoning has triggered the need to discuss this area and whether the street will be rebuilt or not,” Senior City Planner Chuck Bondra said.

Reconstruction on Rock Quarry Road would add a new alignment, an idea the city Planning and Zoning Commission discussed at a work session Thursday. The new alignment would run through a conservation easement protected by the Greenbelt Coalition, a non-profit group that promotes the preservation of green space in the area.

Rather than expanding the existing road to a 38-foot width, the alignment would add a one-way, one-lane southbound road west of the current road. The existing road would be kept as a one-way, one-lane northbound road.

An alternate design would provide a two-lane road with a sidewalk west of Rock Quarry Road, converting the existing road into a bicycle and pedestrian road. Neither option would expand the number of travel lanes.

The new alignment would run through a five-acre conservation easement owned by residents Fred Young and Julie Youmans.

Planning commissioners discussed the new alignment as a way to ease the increased traffic flow, the result of development around new State Route AC. No further talks have been scheduled.

Developer Steve Herigon submitted a rezoning request that would change the designation of a 20-acre tract from agricultural to planned unit development 5, which would allow Herigon to build five housing units per acre. Herigon plans to put 84 townhouses on the tract, if it is rezoned PUD 5, Bondra said.

Herigon could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Young, who lives on Rock Quarry Road, said the rezoning request has caused concern among residents about traffic flow.

“One of our fears is that, if development is allowed to proceed in a dense fashion with high density townhouse development on the south part of the road, it’s going to overload the road and make the road untenable,” Young said. “We want to see the road maintained as a long, narrow, winding road with a country feel.”

Greenbelt Coalition member Dee Dokken said the new alignment concept would put a road through Young’s yard. The Greenbelt Coalition receives some money to prevent unwanted development on that land.

“We have no more power than a landowner,” said Dokken. “Anything they can’t do, we can’t do. But we can take them to court and advocate for conservation of the land.”

Dokken said a road reconstruction would also affect the surrounding land.

“It’s a good natural area, and there’s really not much room to expand the road without impacting green space in that area,” said Dokken. “What we’re hoping is that high-density development won’t be put in there, and the need for an expansion won’t come up for a while.”

Rock Quarry Road is listed as a “priority need” on the city’s capital improvement program, which means the city plans to improve the road within the next four years.

Bondra said the road may be taken out of the program, however, due to lack of funding. If that happens, there would be little prospect of reconstructing the road in the near future, Bondra said. The city council is expected to make that decision in September, he said.

“The way it looks right now, there’s no funding and no desire to build a road any time soon,” Bondra said. “If that’s the case, the city needs to be careful about how much development takes place along the roadway.”

One recommendation city planning is making to the Planning and Zoning Commission is to zone the land PUD 2, allowing Herigon to build two units per acre. This would make for less dense development and less traffic on the road. There are other reasons the road would need reconstruction, Bondra said.

The road is only about 20 feet wide, Bondra said. The city standard for residential streets is 32 feet wide.

“It’s a dangerous road,” Bondra said. “There’s no place to pull over, no sidewalk, no place for bicycles to ride and there are steep dropoffs on either side in some places.”

Landowners along Rock Quarry Road argue the road is not dangerous in itself and say they would like to keep the road as is.

Resident Mariel Stephenson said the new road would go through her property. She said a road reconstruction isn’t necessary if people travel at 30 miles per hour.

“I’m sick of hearing it’s a dangerous road,” said resident Stephenson. “It’s the people who are driving on it that are dangerous.”

Coalition member Dokken said she thinks the road is adequate.

“It seems like people could go over to Providence or Old 63 and just use Rock Quarry as a scenic road, which is what it is designated as,” she said. “It wasn’t meant to be a main thoroughfare. It’s just not a good place to put a road through.”